In 1933, after the assassination of Nadir Khan, Mohammed Zahir Shah became king.

Mohammad Zahir Shah in 1963

Mohammad Zahir Shah, Nadir Khan's 19-year-old son, succeeded to the throne and reigned from 1933 to 1973.

Until 1946 Zahir Shah ruled with the assistance of his uncle Sardar Mohammad Hashim Khan, who held the post of Prime Minister and continued the policies of Nadir Shah.

In 1946, another of Zahir Shah's uncles, Sardar Shah Mahmud Khan, became Prime Minister and began an experiment allowing greater political freedom, but reversed the policy when it went further than he expected.

From 1963 until 1973, Zahir Shah took a more active role.

In 1964, King Zahir Shah promulgated a liberal constitution providing for a bicameral legislature to which the king appointed one-third of the deputies.

Amid charges of corruption and malfeasance against the royal family and poor economic conditions created by the severe 1971 – 72 drought, former Prime Minister Mohammad Sardar Daoud Khan seized power in a non-violent coup on July 17, 1973, while Zahir Shah was receiving treatment for eye problems and therapy for lumbago in Italy.

* 1973 – King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan is deposed by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan while in Italy undergoing eye surgery.

King Nader Khan was assassinated in 1933 and the throne was left to his 19-year-old son, Zahir Shah, who became the long lasting King of Afghanistan.

When Zahir Shah took power in 1933 Kabul had the only 6 miles of rail in the country, few internal telegraph or phone lines and few roads.

In July 1973, Zahir Shah was ousted in a nonviolent coup and Kabul became the capital of a republic under Mohammed Daoud Khan, the new President.

Conversely, some of the people of Kabul who lived under King Zahir Shah describe the period before the April 1978 Saur Revolution as a sort of golden age.

** Mausoleum of Zahir Shah and Nadir Shah

From Amanullah until the reign of Mohammed Zahir Shah ( 1933 – 1973 ) and Mohammed Daoud Khan ( 1973 – 1978 ) the Jirga was recognized as a common meeting of regional Pashtun leaders.

* 1941 — Called by Mohammed Zahir Shah to approve neutrality in World War II.

* September 1964 — A meeting of 452 called by Mohammed Zahir Shah to approve a new constitution.

** The first was based in Rome around Mohammed Zahir Shah, and it reflected the interests of moderate Pashtuns from Afghanistan.

After the exile of King Zahir Shah in 1973, President Daud Khan forged stronger ties with the Soviets by signing two highly controversial military aid packages for his nation in 1973 and 1975.

Mohammed Zahir Shah ( 15 October 1914 – 23 July 2007 ) was the last King ( Padishah ) of Afghanistan, reigning for four decades, from 1933 until he was ousted by a coup in 1973.

Zahir Shah was an ethnic Pashtun who was born on 15 October 1914, in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Zahir Shah was educated in a special class for princes at Habibia High School in Kabul.

His uncle, Habibullah Karzai, served as representative of Afghanistan at the UN and is said to have accompanied King Zahir Shah in the early 1960s to the United States for a special meeting with U. S. President John F. Kennedy.

This force included a small number of Afghan volunteers sent by king Mohammed Zahir Shah and who served as body guards of emir Abdullah.

In 1973, while Mohammed Zahir Shah was in Italy undergoing eye surgery as well as therapy for lumbago, his cousin and former Prime Minister Mohammed Daoud Khan staged a coup d ' état and established a republican government.

In 1983 during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, Zahir Shah was cautiously involved in plans to head a government in exile.

Hamid Karzai, a prominent figure from the Popalzai clan, became the president of Afghanistan and Zahir Shah's relatives and supporters were provided with key posts in the transitional government.

His parents originated from Laghman Province of Afghanistan, and the family moved to Mazar-i-Sharif when his father was a government official under the monarchy of Mohammed Zahir Shah.

At the June, 2002, Loya Jirga to select the Head of State, representatives of the US convinced the former king of Afghanistan, 87-year old Zahir Shah, to withdraw from consideration, even though a majority of Loya Jirga delegates supported him, a move which angered Pashtuns who were concerned with the disproportionate power of the Northern Alliance in the Karzai government.

A longtime associate of former Afghan King Mohammad Zahir Shah, Shahryar represented the government of Hamid Karzai, who became Afghanistan's new president in the summer of 2002.

The national unity government would share power with the Pakistan-based government-in-exile, guerrilla commanders, Afghans living in exile, and the deposed king, Zahir Shah.

In a surprise move, the government restores the citizenship of Zahir Shah, who has been living in virtual banishment in Italy for 18 years.

Zahir Shah is under pressure from the Western countries ( including the United States ) not to respond to Najibullah's call for National Reconciliation because if Zahir Shah returns to Afghanistan and joins the government, most of the traditionalist mujahideen would quit fighting against the government and would probably join the government.

He is persuaded to continue as head of the government until his successor, Abdul Zahir, who was ambassador in Rome, is confirmed as prime minister on June 9.

Even so, Miss Noorzai's elevation to cabinet rank is regarded as a striking illustration of the determination of King Mohammad Zahir Shah and of the government headed by Mohammad Hashim Maiwandwal to bring the country into line with modern ideas on the political and social status of women.

He died during an exchange of fire in the city of Herat between supporters of Zahir Nayebzada, a commander for the central government, and Ismail Khan.

* Mohammad Tahir Khan Popal – former Deputy Minister of Public Works in Zahir Shah government

In Egypt he stayed with his friends, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and Zahir Hussain, at a Maldivian government leased flat, in the Al-Hilmiyyaa area of Cairo.

It should not be remnant that writng some names here representing the area like: Alhaj Mola Mohammed Naseem Akhond the Defence Minister of Mujaheedin's government, Alhaj Mula Ghafaar Akhond Governor of Helmand Province, Alhaj Mola Mohammed Rasool Akhund governor of Helmand province, Mohammed Afzal khan a genius, gentle, bashful and popular trible khan ( leader ), Mohammed Zahir ( solamal ) the former Defence Minister of Afghnanistan and Abdul Rauf Benawa the most popular shinging star in the sky of literature and poetry who worked as director of Pashto Cultural Society, Minister of Information and Culture ( MoIC ), Poet of the country's national anthum which is still alive, Mr. Abdul Karim Haqqani the Former leader of the Ulasi Jirga in Sardaar Mohammed Daud Khan's Republic Government.

King Zahir approves the new cabinet still headed by Mohammad Daud Khan, a king's cousin, who also holds the portfolio of defense ; Naim Khan, another king's cousin, continues as foreign minister and second deputy premier ; Ali Mohammad Khan becomes first deputy premier.

In August 1973, Zahir abdicated rather than risk an all-out civil war.