Marxist rhetoric, and intensified vilification of Pakistan and of
Arab extremism. The party, in its new guise, was to be open only
to ‘believing and practising Muslims’ (Rubin, 1995a: 166).
At this time, Najibullah also resumed his strategy of promoting
‘non-party’ figures. He had done this previously with the appoint-
ment of the ineffectual Dr Hassan Sharq as Chairman of the
Council of Ministers in May 1988. However, Sharq had been
unceremoniously removed on 20 February 1989 and replaced by
his predecessor, Sultan Ali Keshtmand, who became Chairman of
the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers (although
formally Najibullah was to chair the Council). On 7 May 1990, a
dignitary from Herat who had served as Deputy Finance Minister
under Daoud, Fazel Haq Khaliqyar, was appointed to succeed
Keshtmand, who was increasingly at odds with Najibullah, and
was subsequently to be severely injured in an assassination
attempt. (Khaliqyar had been wounded beforecoming to office,
in a spectacular Mujahideen attack in Herat on 6 April 1990
during a ‘national reconciliation’ ceremony.) Other figures, such
as Muhammad Asghar, a prominent figure from the ‘New
Democracy’ era (but also a recipient of a Soviet decoration on the
centenary of the birth of Lenin) were given some scope to express
some heterodox views. But realistically, all these changes were
cosmetic rather than substantive. Najibullah was nota ‘born-again’
pluralist. He was simply prepared to adopt any approach that might
help him retain his position.
Intraparty rivalries
What thwarted Najibullah’s approach at this time, just as it had
when he first preached ‘national reconciliation’ before the Soviet
troop withdrawal, was the lack of consensus within the party elite on
the appropriate course to take. Even after the October 1988 party
purge, there were still numerous Khalqisin significant positions, and
they tended to despise Najibullah and his policies in equal measure.
It was a measure of Najibullah’s lack of room to manoeuvre that
on 17 August 1988, shortly before the purge, the Army Chief of
172 The Afghanistan Wars