Former King to return on confidence-boosting trip

Middle-aged Muhammad Akram Maseed, an Afghan refugee shopkeeper in the southern city of Dera Ismail Khan in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP), awaits the return later this month of Muhammad Zahir Shah, Afghanistan's former monarch, with much optimism. "If he returns, everything will be fine," he said. Maseed, like many of his generation, is a die-hard royalist. "The past experiments have proved that only 'Ala Hazrat' [Great Lord, the title given to Zahir Shah] can run our country," he maintained. Maseed's enthusiasm for royalty runs deep in his family. They were awarded fertile agricultural lands in the Muhammad Agha district of the central Lowgar province in reward for their military services to Zahir Shah's father Nadir Khan in 1929, when he reclaimed Kabul's throne from the Tajik Habibullah. For many Afghan refugees like Maseed, the former king's return is a huge boost to stability and a powerful incentive to head home. Afghanistan's 87-year-old former King Muhammad Zahir Shah is scheduled to return after nearly 29 years in exile. He would inaugurate the "Emergency Loya Jirga" or grand council, in June. The Loya Jirga is Afghanistan's next step towards democracy. To many Afghans like Maseed, the former king represents a golden age of peace and democracy before the country was ripped apart by conflict in the seventies. Observers say though his official role would be symbolic, his unique standing in Afghan society means he will be a rallying point for national reconciliation, much needed after years of fratricidal fighting and bloodshed. But Shah's journey is not without dangers. The Italian government delayed his plan to return in March due to security concerns. Experts told IRIN that many warlords and their respective foreign backers were not happy with his return. Shah's cousin and the erstwhile prime minister, Sardar Muhammad Daud ousted him from power in July 1973 after nearly 40 years in power. Highlighting the implications of the king's return, Afghan expert, Afrasiab Khattak from Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar, told IRIN that Zahir Shah represents a silent majority in a fragmented Afghan society. "His return will end the era of coups, bringing the beginning of representative democracy," he said. Khattak added that the convening of the Loya Jirga by the king would grant lasting legitimacy to the process. "The political plan in Bonn is heavily drawn from His Majesty's 1993 peace plan," he explained. Asked whether the King would outmanoeuvre his opponents in the power play, he pointed out that warlords would find no space in the emerging political scenario. "Zahir Shah is bound to be the rallying point of the democratic camp," Khattak maintained. He further added that in the long term there were chances the monarchy would be restored in Afghanistan. Fazl-e Rahim Marwat, another Central Asian expert, disagreed. "Afghanistan has changed enormously but fitting ideal into actual is difficult," he said. "The magic of the imperial name is very much there and one can only hope it works," Marwat added. Meanwhile, Haji Hayatullah, a former head of an Afghan peace group, the Council of Understanding and National Unity of Afghanistan (CUNUA), told IRIN they were advocating his role as an elder. "The king is someone who can put out the fires of conflict burning in our land," he said.