Editing Hafizullah Amin (section)

===Amin–Taraki break===
The Afghan people revolted against the PDPA government when the government introduced several [[Socialism|socialist reforms]], including [[land reforms]]. By early 1979, twenty-five out of Afghanistan's twenty-eight provinces were unsafe because of armed resistance against the government. On 29 March 1979, the [[1979 Herat uprising|Herat uprising]] began; the uprising turned the revolt into an open war between the Afghan government and anti-regime resistance. It was during this period that Amin became Kabul's strongman.{{sfn|Isby|1986|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=k86jifnA3oYC&pg=PA6 6]}} Shortly after the Herat uprising had been crushed, the Revolutionary Council convened to ratify the new Five-Year Plan, the Afghan–Soviet Friendship Treaty, and to vote on whether or not to reorganise the cabinet and to enhance the power of the [[Executive branch|executive]] (the Chairman of the Revolutionary Council). While the official version of events said that all issues were voted on democratically at the meeting, the Revolutionary Council held another meeting the following day to ratify the new Five-Year Plan and to discuss the reorganisation of the cabinet.{{sfn|Male|1982|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-cYOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA163 163–164]}}

{{Quote box
|width = 23em
|align = right
|quote = As one of our slogans is 'to everyone according to his capacity and work', therefore as a result of past performances and services he has won our greater trust and assurances. I have full confidence in him and in the light of this confidence I entrust him with this job...
|source = — Taraki telling his colleagues why Amin should be appointed Prime Minister.{{sfn|Male|1982|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-cYOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA164 164]}}
}}

[[Alexander Puzanov]], the [[Soviet ambassador to Afghanistan]], was able to persuade [[Aslam Watanjar]], [[Sayed Mohammad Gulabzoy]] and [[Sherjan Mazdoryar]] to become part of a conspiracy against Amin. These three men put pressure on Taraki, who by this time believed that "he really was the 'great leader{{' "}}, to sack Amin from office. It is unknown if Amin knew anything about the conspiracy against him, but it was after the cabinet reorganisation that he talked about his dissatisfaction. On 26 March the PDPA Politburo and the Council of Ministers approved the extension of the powers of the executive branch, and the establishment of the [[Homeland Higher Defence Council]] (HHDC) to handle security matters.{{sfn|Male|1982|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-cYOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA163 163–164]}} Many analysts of the day regarded Amin's appointment as Prime Minister as an increase in his powers at the expense of Taraki. However, the reorganisation of the cabinet and the strengthening of Taraki's position as Chairman of the Revolutionary Council, had reduced the authority of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister was, due to the strengthening of the executive, now appointed by the Chairman of the Revolutionary Council. While Amin could appoint and dismiss new ministers, he needed Taraki's consent to actually do so. Another problem for Amin was that while the Council of Ministers was responsible to the Revolutionary Council and its chairman, individual ministers were only responsible to Taraki. When Amin became Prime Minister, he was responsible for planning, finance and budgetary matters, the conduct of [[foreign policy]], and for order and security. The order and security responsibilities had been taken over by the HHDC, which was chaired by Taraki.{{sfn|Male|1982|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-cYOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA164 164]}} While Amin was HHDC Deputy chairman, the majority of HHDC members were members of the anti-Amin faction. For instance, the HHDC membership included Watanjar the [[Ministry of Defence (Afghanistan)|Minister of National Defence]], [[Ministry of Interior (Afghanistan)|Interior Minister]] Mazdoryar, the President of the Political Affairs of the Armed Forces [[Mohammad Iqbal (politician)|Mohammad Iqbal]], [[Mohammad Yaqub]], the Chief of the General Staff, the Commander of the [[Afghan Air Force]] [[Nazar Mohammad (politician)|Nazar Mohammad]] and [[Assadullah Sarwari]] the head of [[KHAD|ASGA]], the Afghan secret police.{{sfn|Male|1982|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-cYOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA164 164–165]}}
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" width=65% style="float:right; margin:0 15px;"
!colspan="9" | Amin cabinet (1979){{sfn|Adamec|2011|pp=li–lii}}
|-
!Office
!Incumbent
!Took&nbsp; office
!Left&nbsp; office
|-
|[[Deputy Prime Minister of Afghanistan|Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers]]
|rowspan="2"|[[Shah Wali (politician)|Shah Wali]]
|1 April
|27 December
|-
|[[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Afghanistan)|Minister of Foreign Affairs]]
|1 April
|27 December
|-
|rowspan="2"|[[Ministry of Agriculture (Afghanistan)|Minister of Agriculture]]
|[[Saleh Muhammad Zarei]]
|1 April
|28 July
|-
|[[Abdul Rashid Jalili]]
|28 July
|27 December
|-
|[[Ministry of Finance (Afghanistan)|Minister of Finance]]
|[[Abdul Karim Misaq]]
|1 April
|27 December
|-
|[[Ministry of Higher Education (Afghanistan)|Minister of Higher Education]]
|[[Mahmud Suma]]
|1 April
|27 December
|-
|rowspan="2"|[[Ministry of Defence (Afghanistan)|Minister of National Defence]]
|[[Muhammad Aslam Watanjar]]
|1 April
|28 July
|-
|Hafizullah Amin
|28 July
|27 December
|-
|rowspan="2"|[[Ministry of Education (Afghanistan)|Minister of Education]]
|[[Abdul Rashid Jalili]]
|1 April
|28 July
|-
|[[Muhammad Salim Masudi]]
|28 July
|27 December
|-
|[[Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan)|Minister of Justice]], [[Attorney General (Afghanistan)|Attorney General]]
|[[Abdul Hakim Shara'i]]
|1 April
|27 December
|-
|[[Ministry of Water, Power (Afghanistan)|Minister of Water, Power]]
|[[Mahmud Hashemi]]
|1 April
|27 December
|-
|[[Ministry of Information (Afghanistan)|Minister of Information, Culture]]
|[[Khial Katawazi]]
|1 April
|27 December
|-
|[[Ministry of Mines, Industries (Afghanistan)|Minister of Mines, Industries]]
|[[Muhammad Isma'il Danesh]]
|1 April
|27 December
|-
|[[Ministry of Commerce (Afghanistan)|Minister of Commerce]]
|[[Abdul Quddus Ghorbandi]]
|1 April
|27 December
|-
|[[Ministry of Transport (Afghanistan)|Minister of Transport]]
|[[Hasan Bareq-Shafi'i]]
|1 April
|27 December
|-
|rowspan="3"|[[Ministry of Border Affairs (Afghanistan)|Minister of Border Affairs]]
|[[Sahibjan Sahra'i]]
|1 April
|28 July
|-
|[[Sherjan Mazdoryar]]
|28 July
|14 September
|-
|Unknown
|
|
|-
|rowspan="2"|[[Ministry of Post, Telegraph and Telephone (Afghanistan)|Minister of Post, Telegraph and Telephone]]
|[[Sayed Mohammad Gulabzoy]]
|28 July
|14 September
|-
|[[Mohammad Zarif (Afghanistan)|Mohammad Zarif]]
|14 September
|27 December
|-
|rowspan="2"|[[Ministry of the Interior (Afghanistan)|Minister of Interior]]
|[[Muhammad Aslam Watanjar]]
|28 July
|14 September
|-
|[[Faqir Mohammad Faqir]]
|14 September
|27 December
|-
|[[Ministry of Planning (Afghanistan)|Minister of Planning]]
|[[Muhammad Siddig Alemyar]]
|28 July
|27 December
|-
|[[Ministry of Health (Afghanistan)|Minister of Health]]
|[[Saleh Muhammad Zirai]]
|28 July
|27 December
|-
|[[Ministry of Public Works (Afghanistan)|Minister of Public Works]]
|[[Dastagir Panjsheri]]
|28 July
|27 December
|}
The [[order of precedence]] had been institutionalised, whereby Taraki was responsible for defence and Amin responsible for assisting Taraki in defence related matters. Amin's position was given a further blow by the democratisation of the decision-making process, which allowed its members to contribute; most of them were against Amin. Another problem for Amin was that the office of HHDC Deputy chairman had no specific functions or powers, and the appointment of a new defence minister who opposed him drastically weakened his control over the Ministry of National Defence. The reorganisation of ministers was a further blow to Amin's position; he had lost control of the defence ministry, the interior ministry and the ASGA. Amin still had allies at the top, many of them in strategically important positions, for instance, Yaqub was his brother-in-law and the Security Chief in the Ministry of Interior was [[Sayed Daoud Taroon]], who was also later appointed to the HHDC as an ordinary member in April. Amin succeeded in appointing two more of his allies to important positions; [[Mohammad Sediq Alemyar]] as [[Ministry of Planning (Afghanistan)|Minister of Planning]] and [[Khayal Mohammad Katawazi]] as [[Ministry of Information, Culture (Afghanistan)|Minister of Information and Culture]]; and [[Faqir Mohammad Faqir]] was appointed Deputy Prime Minister in April 1978.{{sfn|Male|1982|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-cYOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA165 165]}} Amin's political position was not secure when [[Alexei Yepishev]], the Head of the [[Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Navy]], visited Kabul.{{sfn|Male|1982|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-cYOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA165 165–166]}} Yepishev met personally with Taraki on 7 April, but never met with Amin. The Soviets were becoming increasingly worried about Amin's control over the Afghan military.{{sfn|Male|1982|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-cYOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA166 166]}} Even so, during Yepishev's visit Amin's position was actually strengthened; Taroon was appointed Taraki's aide-de-camp.{{sfn|Male|1982|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-cYOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA166 166–167]}}
{{Quote box
|width = 23em
|align = left
|quote = Our homeland's enemies, the enemies of the working class movement all over the world are trying to penetrate into the PDPA leadership and above all woo the working class party leader but the people of Afghanistan and the PDPA both take great pride in the fact that the PDPA and its General-Secretary enjoys a great personality which render him impossible to woo.
|source = — Amin in a speech in which he warns of inter-party [[sectarianism]].{{sfn|Male|1982|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-cYOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA167 167]}}
}}

Soon after, at two cabinet meetings, the strengthening of the executive powers of the Chairman of the Revolutionary Council was proven. Even though Amin was Prime Minister, Taraki chaired the meetings instead of him. Amin's presence at these two meetings was not mentioned at all, and it was made clear that Taraki, through his office as Chairman of the Revolutionary Council, also chaired the Council of Ministers. Another problem facing Amin was Taraki's policy of [[autocracy]]; he tried to deprive the [[Politburo of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan|PDPA Politburo]] of its powers as a party and state decision-making organ. The situation deteriorated when Amin personally warned Taraki that "the prestige and popularity of leaders among the people has no common aspect with a [[Cult of personality|personality cult]]."{{sfn|Male|1982|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-cYOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA167 167]}}

Factionalism within the PDPA made it ill-prepared to handle the intensified [[counter-revolution]]ary activities in the country.{{sfn|Male|1982|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-cYOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA171 171]}} Amin tried to win support for the communist government by depicting himself as a devout Muslim.{{sfn|Male|1982|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-cYOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA177 177]}} Taraki and Amin blamed different countries for helping the counter-revolutionaries; Amin attacked the United Kingdom and the [[British Broadcasting Corporation]] (BBC) and played down American and Chinese involvement, while Taraki blamed [[American imperialism]] and [[Iran]] and [[Pakistan]] for supporting the uprising. Amin's criticism of the United Kingdom and the BBC fed on the traditional anti-British sentiments held by rural Afghans. In contrast to Taraki, "Amin bent over backwards to avoid making hostile reference to", China, the United States or other foreign governments.{{sfn|Male|1982|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-cYOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA178 178]}} Amin's cautious behavior was in deep contrast to the Soviet Union's official stance on the situation; it seemed, according to Beverley Male, that the Soviet leadership tried to force a confrontation between Afghanistan and its enemies.{{sfn|Male|1982|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-cYOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA178 178]}} Amin also tried to appease the [[Shia]] communities by meeting with their leaders; despite this, a section of the Shia leadership called for the continuation of the resistance. Subsequently, a revolt broke out in a Shia populated district in Kabul; this was the first sign of unrest in Kabul since the [[Saur Revolution]].{{sfn|Male|1982|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-cYOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA179 179]}} To add to the government's problems, Taraki's ability to lead the country was questioned – he was a heavy drinker and was not in good health. Amin on the other hand was characterised in this period by portrayals of strong self-discipline. In the summer of 1979 Amin began to disassociate himself from Taraki.{{sfn|Male|1982|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-cYOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA180 180]}} On 27 June Amin became a member of the PDPA Politburo, the leading decision-making body in Afghanistan.{{sfn|Rasanayagam|2005|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=5L8CnWkACQkC&pg=PA71 71–73]}}