KARZAI RESTORED THE FORMER CONSTITUTION AND NATIONAL FLAG
KABOL 5 Feb. (IPS) Afghan interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai issued Tuesday an order to restore the 1964 Constitution, nullifying all laws, edicts and orders that are in conflict with the Constitution and the Bonn accord, Radio Kabul announced.
The 1964 Constitution was adopted by Afghanistan's Loya Jirga, or the traditional Grand Assembly of Elders, under former King Mohammad Zaher Shah, who was ousted by his cousin Davoud Khan 1974.
The Bonn agreement, concluded on 22 December by major Afghan factions, including the Northern Alliance and supporters of the former 87 years-old Monarch through a U.N.-brokered conference, envisaged the installation of an interim government and convention of a new Loya Jirga, to be presided over by Zaher Shah, who is expected back in Kabol on 15 March, on the eve of Afghan New Year, or No Rooz, that falls on 21 of March.
Earlier on the day, Mr. Karzai had also raised Afghanistan's old flag over
the presidential palace and issued another decree replacing the lunar calendar
with the traditional Afghan solar calendar, which is also in use in neighbouring
Iran.
The solar calendar was used in Afghanistan until 1999 when it was changed by the Taleban authorities against the Islamic lunar calendar.
The change means the year switches from 1423 to 1380.
Karzai officially raised the country's black, red and green flag at a special ceremony celebrating a further step in the war-ravaged country's return to constitutional rule.
"Today marks a new era for our country. I hope my country will have peace forever", Karzai said Tuesday before hoisting the flag over the palace for the first time since his interim cabinet took office in December.
"We Afghan people have had many problems but from now on we must take each other's hands in a brotherly way and rebuild our country", he added, as on the eastern province of Paktia, rival factions that had fought each other for the control of Gardez had declared a cease-fire.
The flag was approved by the 1964 constitution as Afghanistan's national emblem but has not flown over government offices in Kabol since the early 1990s, before the Taleban took over.
Cabinet ministers, diplomats and former president Borhaneddin Rabbani, who had changed the national flag to green, white and black during his rule from 1992 to 1996, attended the ceremony, which lasted about 15 minutes.
The Taleban, who were defeated by the Americans after they entered Afghanistan to uproot the Al-Qa’eda organisation and catch its leader, Mr. Osama Ben Laden, believed to be behind the 11 September attacks on the United States, used a white flag after ousting Rabanni in 1996.
The black, red and green standard is generally known as the "king's flag" as it came to symbolise the rule of ex-king Mohammed Zahir Shah, who has lived in Rome since 1973 after his 40-year relatively peaceful reign was ended by a court coup.
Karzai, dressed in his trademark ethnic coat and hat, inspected an honour guard before raising the flag in the grounds of the palace.
As he hoisted the bunting, soldiers raised a much larger version on a flagpole in one of the palace towers.
Karzai's government was sworn in on December 22 following 23 years of
conflict in which first the Soviets followed by rival warlords and finally the
hard-line Taleban Islamic militia ruled Afghanistan by force. ENDS FORMER AFQAN
CONSTITUTION RESTORED 5202