Front Page | In-depth | World After the Taleban  Loya Jirga
Northern Alliance Former King Zahir Shah Hedayat Amin Arsala
Abdul Sattar Sirat Pashtun leaders Women's voices Zahir
ShahZahir Shah (Pashtun)  Who he is: Mohammad Zahir Shah ruled
Afghanistan for 40 years, before being deposed by his cousin
Daoud during a visit to Europe in 1973. After 28 years in exile,
the now frail former monarch will preside over the traditional
assembly of elders, the Loya Jirga.  Zahir Shah ruled himself
out as a possible head of state after an apparent power struggle
between his supporters and ethnic Tajiks from the Northern
Alliance ahead of the loya jirga. The alliance holds most of the
key roles in the interim administration, and back its current
leader, Hamid Karzai, as future head of state.  Mr Karzai - like
the King - is an ethnic Pashtun. But some Pashtuns feel that
he's compromised by the support being given to him by the
Northern Alliance, while the King is regarded as a unifying
figure who transcends Afghanistan's et