Afghan leaders look to future

Former Afghan King Mohammad Zaher Shah, center, takes Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai's hand at the Loya Jirga grand council meeting, in Kabul

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan's loya jirga -- the traditional tribal council that will determine the nation's transitional government -- started Tuesday after a day's delay, and the country's current interim leader is getting support to head a new administration from two key figures.

Afghanistan's former king, Zaher Shah, Monday threw his support behind interim government chairman Hamid Karzai to lead a transitional government.

Burhanuddin Rabbani, Afghanistan's former president, said Tuesday he decided to withdraw his candidacy to lead the government and support Karzai.

But Rabbani will receive governmental influence and power in return for giving up his own candidacy, sources said. He will be able to help decide on future composition of the Cabinet and other key posts.

The former king, who is 87 years old and quite frail, officially opened ceremonies, held in a huge tent with 1,500 delegates.

"In this loya jirga, I ask all the delegates to consider the priorities of the nation and the desires of the people, and to have a good outcome and we should choose the right person to bring us a good future," the former king said.

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"I open the ceremony of this loya jirga and may God help us."

Karzai said Afghans want peace, national unity, and an end to warlords, some of whom were attending the loya jirga, encompassing all aspects of Afghan society.

Postponement

The loya jirga, which was to start Monday, had been postponed for 24 hours because of logistic and preparation issues, according to a member of the Special Independent Commission organizing the event. And, the former Afghan king's role in the next government caused the delay.

Abdul Salam Rahimi told reporters Monday that the delay was caused by an incomplete final voting list for the council and emphasized that it was not caused by security or political issues.

Many warlords had pressed for Shah to be a candidate, and warned there could be bloodshed if he didn't win.

In a statement Monday, the ex-king said he did not want the monarchy restored or to be a candidate for president.

While the move appeased the dominant Tajik ethnic group, there was tension inside the loya jirga as some delegates felt their rights had been taken away.

An Afghan delegate who uses only one name, Mirwais, told the Associated Press news agency, "It is for us to decide what role the king has. If we want or don't want the king, it is for us to decide and then the king can say whether he accepts or not."

Shah, from Afghanistan's major ethnic Pashtun group, has never publicly claimed any position but support for the former monarch had been growing because of his image as a unifying figure for a people suffering from nearly a generation of war.

Shah was deposed while on a trip to Italy in 1973 when his brother-in-law, Mohammad Daud Khan, proclaimed Afghanistan a republic and himself president. The former monarch lived in exile in Rome until April, when he finally returned to his homeland vowing peace and democracy for Afghanistan.

Women participants

The creation of the loya jirga is in accordance with an agreement hammered out among leaders of Afghan factions in Bonn, Germany, late last year, to build a post-Taliban Afghan government.

The loya jirga, an assembly of 1,501 elected and appointed delegates who make up Afghanistan's U.N.-installed interim leadership, led by Karzai, will meet in a large tent in Kabul over the coming days to select a new government with representatives of different ethnic groups, tribes and religions.

The loya jirga, which means "grand council," is "a political institution that Afghans have had for centuries," Karzai said in January. "It's a powerful institution that Afghans will listen to."

Perhaps the most significant new participants in the government are women, who will serve their country for the first time.

Women already are among the delegates to the loya jirga. Members of Afghanistan's interim government say they are committed to changing Taliban rules that forbade women to work, attend school, or even vote.

A major challenge of the new government will be representing Afghanistan's many fractured ethnic groups -- such as the Pashtuns, Shiites, Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks -- which have fought with one another through the years over property and land.

Some hostility among the groups remains, even though those who formed the interim council in Germany last year tried to balance the factions and create a multi-ethnic government.

The loya jirga is scheduled to end June 16. If no decisions have been made by then, a provision allows delegates to extend their session until June 22. That date is final because it marks the end of the six-month mandate of the Karzai-led interim government.