On the record, Mr. Hamid Karzai is the President of the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan. He is looking forward to being reelected, this time as President, in June of the current year. If elected, he will then shun the prefixes of "interim" and " transitional" from his title. His current title and the one before it, made him present himself in a unique way to the people of the world by wearing a cape and a cap of the people in northern Afghanistan and a modern version of the Kamis-Aizar of the south. His appearance was so unique that European designers started to sing the praises of his attire and gave him the title of one of the well-dressed leaders.

But appearances aside, his role, his difficult role in leading a devastated country was and is the most important aspect of his fortune in becoming the leader during a difficult phase in his country. However, as witnessed by events, he has had to share his leadership with a variety of people and influences. There have been so many interests at work in Afghanistan that he has had to share power with almost all of the people who in one way or another were put, like himself, by circumstance on the political stage of Afghanistan. To name a few, one recalls Mohammad Zahir Shah, the former King, the father of the nation and the architect of the Emergency Loya Jirga solution. Then as well as now there is Mr. Zalmai Khalilzad, the US Ambassador in Afghanistan who frequently visits Karzai's Presidential Palace for discussions and offering of advice if not directives. The Bonn Meeting had given him a cabinet the members of which were not of his own choosing. He had to contend with it and especially because there were powerful warlords in his cabinet who had armies of their own, Karzai felt compelled to keep them happy in one way or another: one way being sharing some degree of power with them. Thus Fahim, the Defence Minister, Abdullah the Foreign Minister, and Qanooni the Minister of Education shared in the powers of the president in the first days of the new regime. The former president, Burhanuddin Rabbani, who had fallen in love with the title, the powerful ruler of the Western province of Herat, Ismail Khan (whose son is a Karzai cabinet minister), the then powerful governor of Kandahar, Gul Agha Shairzoy, and the Haji brothers of Ningrahar and later Hazrat Ali as well as the controversial figure Badshah Khan Zadran in the southeast, too, in one way or another claimed some powers of the president. Karzai had to concede. But this was not all, there were and still are powerful leaders abroad who have direct interest in the affairs of Afghanistan. They discuss Afghanistan openly as a country officially in their charge. They talk of their plans and responsibilities for and toward Afghanistan. They decide how many troops to send in there. They decide on the function of their troops in Afghanistan. They have freedom of action and design in the country. In other words they are also presidents of Afghanistan and share a lion's share of Karzai's presidential powers. The US President, his cabinet secretaries for defense Mr. Donald Rumsfeld, his secretary for state Mr. Collin Powell, the Prime Minister of Great Britain Mr. Tony Blair are a few of these world leaders. And then there is the United Nations. A soft-spoken, career diplomat, super-cautious, conservative Secretary General of this world body has assigned special representatives to Afghanistan to help in shaping up of a new administration, a new regime there. Thus he too, has claimed some powers of President Karzai.

On the other hand within his cabinet and the so-called inner circle, there are some that have proven themselves by action to be more than ministers. His finance minister for example is so powerful that reportedly he decides on the action plans for other ministries such as planning, reconstruction, rural development authorities, and even foreign ministry. Some of his actions show him to be a smaller version of the president rather than a minister.

In the new Afghanistan, there is a relative degree of freedom of the press. While a free press is an assent for any society and adds dignity to the character of the nation, an ill-informed or ignorant press is a curse. Unfortunately there are both types of press active in the country and outside and the latter type that claims unprecedented wisdom issues directives to Karzai on what to do and what not to do. Unfortunately many of these directives by the uninformed press are subservient to ethnic, religious and economic interests and thus it is a good thing that they are ignored by Karzai..

And above all, there are the Taleban. They are now being categorized by the Karzai administration as good Taleban and bad Taleban. And Karzai's administration shows indications that he would not mind befriending the good Taleban in order to strengthen his position among many competing power struggles in the country. If this happens then Karzai would have to share some degree of power with them as well.

For a president to share so much power with so many, he would need infinite power to begin with. Does Karzai have unlimited power to be able to share with everyone on the political stage of Afghanistan? 03/12/04