OBITUARY: Mohammad Zahir Shah, last king of Afghanistan, dead at 92

Jul 23, 2007, 9:39 GMT

Kabul - Mohammad Zahir Shah - the last king of Afghanistan, who ushered in a 1964 constitution that brought democracy to Afghanistan before a coup forced him into exile - died on Monday morning at the age of 92.

Crowned in 1933 at 19 after witnessing the assassination of his father, Zahir Shah put into effect a constitution that made Afghanistan a constitutional monarchy with free elections and universal suffrage, a parliament and the emancipation of women.

He kept Afghanistan neutral through World War II and the Cold War before a coup led by a cousin deposed him after 40 years on the throne, ending a 226-year Pashtun dynasty. As his country descended into violence in the following decades, Zahir Shah lived quietly in a villa outside Rome.

He only returned to Afghanistan in 2002 after a US-led invasion ousted the country's fundamentalist Islamic Taliban regime. His reign was remembered with nostalgia by many Afghans as a long period of peace. Monarchists called for his restoration to the throne, but he refused.

Instead, a postwar 'loya jirga,' a traditional council of tribal elders, declared him the 'Father of the Nation,' but he said a title given to him by the people was his favourite.

'They call me 'Baba', which means grandfather or father.' he said. 'That is the title I like best.'

Zahir Shah, who was reportedly bedridden since the beginning of the year, died of natural causes at 5:45 am Monday morning in the Royal Palace in Kabul, President Hamid Karzai told a press conference.

'He was the symbol of national unity, he was founder of democracy in Afghanistan', Karzai said, 'I hope Afghanistan sees the fulfillment of the biggest wish of the Father of the Nation which was peace in the country.'

Karzai described the former monarch as a man who believed in the rule of the people, in their freedom and in the rights of humanity.

General Abdul Wali, the former king's first cousin, his son-in-law and his chief of army staff told dpa by phone, 'We lost our beloved one; no one can fill his place for me or for Afghanistan.'

Born October 16, 1914, in Kabul, the future king was educated in France and the Afghan capital before succeeding his father, Mohammed Nadir Shah. For most of his reign, he served as a figurehead as two of his uncles effectively ran the government as prime ministers until 1953.

This period was one of stability for Afghanistan, yet there was also much opposition to Afghan's Pashtun king, particularly among other ethnic groups, who had suffered under his predecessors' suppression. Many segments also resented the opulence in which the king lived while much of the rest of the population subsisted in abject poverty.

In 1953, a rival branch of his family succeeded in winning the premiership for Muhammad Daoud, Zahir Shah's cousin, who took the country closer to the Soviet Union.

The king forced out Daoud in 1963 and took control of the government himself. A constitution followed the next year that guaranteed civil rights and freedom of the press, gave women the right to vote and barred the royal family from holding high-level government posts.

'I don't think that the country can govern itself well without the participation and the free will of the people of that land, and, therefore, democracy is essential to society,' Zahir Shah said in a 2002 CNN interview.

The king sought to modernize Afghanistan politically and economically and ushered in education for women, but his efforts met with opposition from religious fundamentalists. Factionalism and political infighting limited reforms.

Afghanistan also continued as an impoverished country with little development and infrastructure outside Kabul. In the early 1970s, drought and famine struck, and tribal disputes continued to be commonplace.

His reign ended while he was travelling in Italy in July 1973 when Daoud carried out a bloodless coup in Kabul. Afghanistan was declared a republic and Daoud its president.

While Zahir Shah took up residence outside Rome, his country was plagued by instability. Daoud died in a coup in 1978 that brought to power a communist government. The Soviet invasion followed the next year to prop up the weak regime, and a war between the Soviets and mujahedin guerrilla forces lasted until the 1989 Soviet withdrawal.

Factional fighting for control of the country then erupted until the Taliban militia established itself as the power in most of the country, capturing Kabul in 1996 and offering a haven for the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

The Taliban was ousted in a US-led invasion of the country that began shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

During this time, the peace Zahir Shah enjoyed in Italy was broken only in 1991 when he was stabbed three times by an unknown assailant.

Celebrations met his return to Afghanistan in April 2002. Zahir Shah opened the postwar loya jirga at a time when he was seen as a figure behind which his fractured country might unify. He initially said that although he did not want to be restored to the throne, he would seek the presidency.

'I have not come to restore monarchy, but I would like to be close to my countrymen again and help them address the problems in Afghanistan,' he said.

He later stepped back from his campaign, a move many saw as a result of pressure from the United States.

The former king then put his support behind his fellow Pashtun and the US-backed candidate, Hamid Karzai, who became interim president and then in 2004 was elected president.

Zahir Shah's wife and queen, Homaira Shah, did not enjoy his homecoming. The mother of his nine children was too ill to travel and died in Rome at 84, two months after his arrival.

The former king spent his remaining days at the Royal Palace in Kabul, receiving audiences, taking walks around the palace gardens and seldom leaving the capital.

'I have come to spend the rest of my life with my people,' he had said when he returned to that palace in 2002.