Editing Soviet–Afghan War (section)

=== May 1986–1988: Najibullah and his reforms ===
The government of President Karmal, a [[puppet state]], was largely ineffective. It was weakened by divisions within the PDPA and the Parcham faction, and the regime's efforts to expand its base of support proved futile. Moscow came to regard Karmal as a failure and blamed him for the problems. Years later, when Karmal's inability to consolidate his government had become obvious, Mikhail Gorbachev, then General Secretary of the [[Soviet Communist Party]], said, "The main reason that there has been no national consolidation so far is that Comrade Karmal is hoping to continue sitting in Kabul with our help."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kakar |first1=Hassan |last2=Kakar |first2=Mohammed |title=Afghanistan: The Soviet Invasion and the Afghan Response, 1979–1982 |date=1997 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-20893-3 |page=74}}</ref> Karmal's consolidation plan only involved those who had not raised arms against the regime, and even demanded Soviet troops to seal the border with Pakistan before any negotiations with Mujahideen. Eventually, the Soviet Union decided to dispose of Karmal from the leadership of Afghanistan.<ref name="cdlib" />
[[File:RIAN archive 644461 First stage in the Soviet troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.jpg|thumb|A column of Soviet BTR armored personnel carriers departing from Afghanistan]]

In May 1986, [[Mohammad Najibullah]], former chief of the Afghan [[secret police]] ([[KHAD]]), was elected General Secretary and later as President of the Revolutionary Council. The relatively young new leader wasn't known that well to the Afghan population at the time, but he made swift reforms to change the country's situation and win support as devised by experts of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]. An eloquent speaker in both the Pashto and Dari languages, Najibullah engaged with elders and presented both himself and the state as Islamic, sometimes backing his speeches with excerpts from the [[Qur'an]]. A number of prisoners were released, while the night curfew in Kabul that had been in place since 1980 was finally lifted. He also moved against pro-Karmal Parchamites, who were expelled from the Revolutionary Council and the Politburo.<ref name="cdlib" />

President Najibullah launched the "[[National Reconciliation (Afghanistan)|National Reconciliation]]" program at the start of 1987, the goal of which was to unite the nation and end the war that had enveloped the nation for seven years. He expressed willingness to negotiate with the Mujahideen resistance, allow parties other than the PDPA to be active, and indicated that exiled King [[Zahir Shah]] could be part of the process. A six-month ceasefire also began in December 1986. His administration was also more open to foreign visitors outside the Soviet bloc.<ref name="cdlib" /> In November 1987, Najibullah convened a ''[[loya jirga]]'' selected by the authorities which successfully passed a new constitution for Afghanistan, creating a presidential system with an elective bicameral parliament. The constitution declared "the sacred religion of Islam" the official religion, guaranteed the democratic rights of the individual, made it legal to form "political parties", and promoted equality between the various tribes and nationalities.<ref name="cdlib" /> Despite high expectations, the new policy only had limited impact in regaining support from the population and the resistance, partly because of the high distrust and unpopularity of the PDPA and KHAD, as well as Najibullah's loyalty to Moscow.<ref name="cdlib" />

As part of the new structure, national [[1988 Afghan parliamentary election|parliamentary elections]] were held in 1988 to elect members of the new National Assembly, the first such elections in Afghanistan in 19 years.

==== Negotiations for a coalition ====
Ex-king Zahir Shah remained a popular figure to most Afghans. Diego Cordovez of the UN also recognized the king as a potential key to a political settlement to the war after the Soviet troops would leave. Polls in 1987 showed that he was a favored figure to lead a potential coalition between the DRA regime and Mujahideen factions, as well as an opposition to the unpopular but powerful guerrilla leader [[Gulbuddin Hekmatyar]], who was strongly against the King's return. Pakistan however was against this and refused to grant the ex-king a visa for potential negotiations with Mujahideen. Pakistan's President [[Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq|Zia-ul-Haq]] and his supporters in the military were determined to put a conservative Islamic ally in power in Kabul.<ref name="nsaessay" />

Negotiations continued and in 1988 through 1989, The Interim Afghan Government was formed in [[Peshawar|Pekhawar]] as an alliance of various Mujahadeen groups including [[Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin|Hezbi Islami]] and [[Jamiat-e Islami|Jamiat]], and would be involved in [[Operation Arrow]] and the [[siege of Khost]].<ref>{{Cite news |title=Afghan Interim Rule: Rocky Road |work=Christian Science Monitor |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/1992/0513/13181.html |access-date=2023-09-02 |issn=0882-7729}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web| title=Middle East Brief for 26 February 1988 | url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000258646.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230902145018/https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000258646.pdf | archive-date=2023-09-02}}</ref>