afghanistanand direct election’. They even had the right to call government ministers
and judges to account and impeach them. However, only a third of the
Meshrano Jirga, or House of Elders, was returned by popular vote while
the Loya Jirga, the third Legislative tier, could veto any changes to the
Constitution. The king remained supreme commander of the armed forces,
and he alone could summon or dissolve the Loya Jirga. He also appointed
one-third of the members of the Meshrano Jirga, had the power to dismiss
or suspend the Wolusi Jirga and could declare a State of Emergency without
consulting either Parliament or the Loya Jirga. Furthermore, the monarch
appointed the prime minister, high court judges, ‘high-ranking civil and
military officers’ and ‘issue ordinances’. Article 15 even declared that ‘the
king is not accountable’.
Another contentious issue was the succession. This was stated to be
by right of primogeniture, while the queen could act as regent if the heir
apparent were under age. The Loya Jirga, however, passed an amendment
that ‘members of the Royal House shall not participate in political parties’,
nor were they allowed to sit in the Lower or Upper Houses or serve as
judges in the Supreme Court. This addendum was designed to deny Da’ud
and Na‘im the right to the throne, as well as to exclude them and other
members of the Musahban family the right to a seat in Parliament or the
Loya Jirga. The amendment was bitterly contested by Da’udist members of
both Houses, but they were outvoted. The debate on the succession took
place against a background of suspicion that Da’ud planned to mount a
coup during the Loya Jirga. Zahir Shah had refused to nominate Da’ud as a
delegate to the Loya Jirga and there were rumours that he planned to defy
the king and turn up anyway. Dr Yusuf responded with a show of force,
placing army units along the main streets of the capital, so Da’ud decided
to wait for a more favourable opportunity. After eleven days of debate the
Loya Jirga voted by a majority to accept the Constitution and on 1 October
1964 King Zahir Shah set his seal on the document. It was a significant
victory for reformers and modernizers over religious conservatives, who
had controlled Afghanistan’s social and legal agenda since the era of Nadir
Shah and Hashim Khan.
Under the Constitution new elections were to be held in September
1965, a process that involved a major reorganization of provincial bounda-
ries and the creation of 29 wilayats, or provinces, and sub-districts known
as wulswalis. A new law allowed limited press freedom and resulted in the
publication of a plethora of private broadsheets, while political movements
emerged from the shadows and prepared to register in order to contest the
elections. In January 1964 the Hizb-i Demokratik-i Khalq-i Afghanistan, or