International
A man with a royal lineage, Western outlook
ISLAMABAD, DEC. 6. Hailing from a royal clan of the majority Afghan Pashtun tribe, Mr. Hamid Karzai, the nominated head of the new Afghan interim administration, is by far the most Westernised Afghan tribal leader to have taken over the reins of the country.
An ethnic Pashtun and head of Afghanistan's most influential Popalzoi clan, a position he inherited in 1999 after his father was shot dead by the Taliban in the Pakistani town of Quetta, the 46-year-old Karzai emerged as a powerful tribal leader from the Taliban's political stronghold of Kandahar. He hails from the 500,000-strong Popalzoi clan which has the royal tag, as former King Zahir Shah too comes from its ranks. Almost every king of Afghanistan since 1747 has been drawn from the Popalzoi ranks. The Popalzois draw their lineage from a tribal grouping called the Durrani, one of two major groupings among Pashtuns. The Durrani is the second largest Pashtun clan. It was founded by Ahmed Shah Durrani, a Persian soldier who conquered Kandahar in 1747 and became the first king of Afghanistan.
The largest Pashtun clan was known as Ghilzai which formed the backbone of the Taliban and was opposed to any effort to reinstate the former king. Besides the royal tag, the Karzai family was considered to be a well-known Mujahideen family as his father fought the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan along with several Taliban leaders. Historically too, the Karzai family was well known as his grandfather Abdul Ahad Karzai served as former president of the national council under King Shah before the monarch was deposed in 1973. Since then, the Karzais have moved to Quetta and lived there.
Mr. Hamid Karzai, who studied in the U.S., is well educated and highly Westernised. He speaks English fluently and served as a Deputy Foreign Minister in the first Mujahideen Government in 1992 of Mr. Burhanuddin Rabbani who came to power after the Soviet withdrawal in 1987. Mr. Karzai represented his tribe in the Government until the Taliban seized power in 1996.
The Islamic militia is reported to have cultivated him before they took power and offered him the post of Ambassador to the United Nations. He was originally sympathetic towards the regime but changed his position in 1994. Mr. Karzai came to limelight recently when in October this year, he slipped across the border into Afghanistan to campaign for the ouster of the Taliban. He survived a Taliban attempt to capture him. More recently, his forces have been engaging the Taliban near their last remaining stronghold Kandahar.
- PTI
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