consolidated his power vis-à-vishis colleagues to the point that he
could actually issue commands and not have them blocked through
studied non-cooperation, his real power would be limited to what
he could achieve directly through KhAD. The second level at which
he faced challenges related to state–society relations more general-
ly. Unless he could reconfigure the state into a legitimate agency
which could mobilise and redistribute resources of its own, his
regime would remain dependent upon externally supplied backing.
In the former sphere, he was to achieve a measure of success. In the
latter, he enjoyed very little success at all.
Karmal’s removal as head of the party did not amount to his
complete elimination from Afghan politics. Initially, Najibullah
spoke as if a collective leadership of himself, Karmal, and Sultan
Ali Keshtmand was to rule, but any such notion disappeared rapid-
ly. None the less, Karmal retained the position of Chairman of the
Revolutionary Council until November 1986, when he was
replaced (in an acting capacity) by a tribal nonentity, Haji
Muhammad Chamkani, who in 1987 relinquished the position to
Najibullah. Karmal’s continued presence provided a certain cover
for his associates to cause trouble for the new party leader.
Najibullah responded ruthlessly, demoting a raft of Karmal sup-
porters, and promoting persons loyal to him. His cleanout, over
time, amounted to ‘the systematic removal of all other significant
people of influence within the PDPA’ (Halliday and Tanin, 1998:
1368). At a plenum of the party Central Committee held on
10 July 1986, the Central Committee was enlarged, and three
prominent figures were removed: the Herat party secretary, Abdul
Ghaffar Azad; the secretary of the Revolutionary Council, Anwar
Farzan; and the notorious former secret police chief from the
Taraki period, Asadullah Sarwari (Gille, 1986: 4). On 4 December
1986, the Parchami Muhammad Rafi was appointed Defence
Minister in place of the Khalqi Nazar Muhammad, and Abdul
Wakil replaced Shah Muhammad Dost as Foreign Minister; on 11
June 1987, Karmal’s associate Dr Anahita Ratebzad, the only
female Politburo member, was unceremoniously removed from her
position; she and Karmal’s half-brother, Mahmud Baryalay, were
118 The Afghanistan Wars