Heir apparent

Hamid Karzai, who is slated to take the reins of power in Afghanistan this week, is a seasoned politico equally at home among his tribesmen and on the international political stage, writes Absar Alam in Islamabad
This Saturday Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani, Afghanistan's octogenarian senior statesman, will shuffle off the stage to make way for a new generation of war-hardened politicians and, perhaps, a new political culture. Hamid Karzai, 44, takes over from Rabbani to lead a 30-member interim administration.
The interim cabinet, the members of which were agreed upon by Afghanistan's many ethnic groups at a conference in Bonn earlier this month, will oversee the country's affairs for the next six months. Thirteen portfolios have yet to be assigned, but among those comprising the cabinet are two women, Sima Samar and Suhaila Siddiqi, who will represent the majority female population of Afghanistan.
In six months time a Loya Jirga, or a large gathering of tribal elders, will meet to endorse an interim government that will hold sway for the next two years. The government will also be charged with preparing a constitution and convoking the country's first general elections.
Although all four Afghan factions attending talks in Bonn -- the Northern Alliance, the Rome group loyal to former King Zaher Shah, and the smaller groups in exile in Cyprus and Peshawar -- signed the agreement, none hesitated to express dissatisfaction with it.
Against this backdrop, Karzai, who is from Afghanistan's largest ethnic group the Pahstun, a minority in Pakistan, will attempt to unite and rebuild the ethnically divided nation devastated by two and a half decades of war.
A moderate Muslim, Karzai has been a prominent political figure in the war- torn country during the past two decades. Head of the Popal Zai tribe based in southern Afghanistan, Karzai was deputy foreign minister and then minister for planning in the cabinet of Burhanuddin Rabbani that replaced communist President Najeebullah in 1992. After the Taliban militia ousted Rabbani in 1996, Karzai, who speaks fluent English, Pashto, Urdu and Darri (Afghan Persian), joined the extremist- religious movement but fell out with its leadership within few months over the policy matters.
Although Mullah Mohamed Omar appointed him Afghanistan's permanent representative to the United Nations, Karzai declined the offer and moved to Quetta, a Pakistani city not far from Kandahar where he was born in 1957 in the house of a Popal Zai tribal chief in the village Karz. The Popal Zai is one of the largest and most influential Pashtun tribes in Afghanistan. With a strength of over 500,000 tribesmen, it is a significant player in the Pashtun belt.
The Karzai family has had a leading role in Afghan politics for the last 600 years. Karzai's father, Abul-Ahad Karzai, was a close associate of King Zaher Shah when the monarch prevailed over the country. The senior Karzai commanded respect from all of the country's ethnic groups as the chairman of Afghanistan's senate, the Wulfi Jirga.
Karzai's grandfather, Khair Mohamed Karzai, was the chairman of the Wulfi Jirga that authorised King Zaher Shah to rule over Afghanistan.
Hamid Karzai is married and has no children. His wife, one of his brothers and many of his close relatives live among his tribesmen in Quetta. Karzai's other five brothers and one sister live in the United States in Maryland, Washington DC and Boston. In Boston, his family runs "Helmund," a popular Afghan eatery.
Karzai spent most of his childhood in Kandahar, obtained his Baccalaureate degree from Habibia High School in Kabul before going to Himachal Paradesh University in Simla, India, to do post-graduate work in political science.
Soon after he completed his studies in India in 1982, Karzai, whose friends describe him as a peace-loving caring man, put his degree aside and picked up a Kalashnikov to fight against the former Soviet Union forces to liberate his country. Although Karzai was not on the front-line, he was active in the planning and strategising. Until 1985, he participated in the Afghan Jihad as director of operations for the Afghan National Liberation Front (ANLF). In 1987, he took over the ANLF's Information Department in Peshawar and subsequently became director of the front's Political Department.
After the defeat of Soviet forces, Karzai became the director-general of foreign relations for the Afghan interim government in Peshawar, which was headed by Sibghatullah Mujadedi. In 1992, when the mujahedin entered Kabul after defeating Najeebullah's forces, Karzai was appointed deputy foreign minister of the interim government that was led by Burhanuddin Rabbani. While holding the foreign affairs portfolio, Karzai in 1992 addressed the UN General Assembly. He also established a federation dedicated to preserving the environment seven years ago.
In 1994, Karzai joined the Taliban and helped push warlords out of Kabul, but his alliance with the movement was short-lived. "He left the Taliban movement due to the foreign interference in Afghanistan's affairs," Abdul-Malik, a close aide of Karzai and his brother-in- law, told Al-Ahram Weekly from Quetta. "He does not want to be a part of any regime or any institution," Malik said. After his falling out with the hard- line religious movement, Karzai headed for Quetta in 1997 to join his father and younger brother Ahmed Wali Karzai. In Quetta he set up an office to launch a struggle for the Loya Jirga while strengthening his ties with his tribe.
In 1998, he co-organised and participated in an intra-Afghan conference held in Bonn, Germany.
When the former King Zaher Shah organised a Loya Jirga in Rome in 1999, Karzai was a member of its executive committee. Last year he travelled to the United States to testify before the Foreign Relations Committee of the US Senate.
During his stay in Quetta, Karzai stepped up his efforts to reinstate King Zaher Shah, antagonising the ruling Taliban militia. The assassination of Karzai's father in 1999 in Quetta by unidentified assailants toughened his stand against the Taliban regime, causing him to redouble to effect political change in Afghanistan.
Soon after the US began bombing Afghanistan in early October, Karzai entered the country to muster support against the Taliban regime. Although his life was in great danger, Karzai remained in Afghanistan until the fall of Taliban.
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