Team News Riveting
Kabul, September 28
Taliban Tuesday announced that it would temporarily adopt the 1964 monarchy constitution except for those clauses that contest the Islamic Sharia law and the values of the ruling Islamist group.
The Taliban’s acting justice minister issued a statement stating that the interim government planned to introduce a constitution used during Afghanistan’s short-lived golden age of democracy, but only briefly and with amendments.
“The Islamic Emirate will adopt the constitution of the former king Mohammad Zahir Shah’s time for a temporary period,” Maulvi Abdul Hakim Sharaee said. However, any clause that the Taliban consider contradicts Sharia law and the principles of Islamist militia would be changed or removed.
The text that was enforced for a brief period of constitutional monarchy from 1964 to 1973 was considered moderate that protects Islamic and democratic rights of the Afghans. It was also friendly to international conventions. The constitution grants Afghan men and women the right to vote to elect lawmakers.
The Taliban seized power in Kabul on August 15 in an almost bloodless coup after President Ashraf Ghani fled to the United Arab Emirates. The Islamist militia has pledged an inclusive approach to governance and promised that the administration would protect the rights of women.
