(Part 32)
Parties and Their Effects Towards Disintegration
In the decade of Mohammad Zahir Shah’s constitutionalism, by holding the elections of the National Council and municipalities, the ground for the creation of parties was provided.
Weesh Zelmian was the first political Party in Afghanistan that was established in 1326 Solar Calendar. After the formation of this party by Abdul Rauf Binwa, Gol Pacha Elfat and others, it immediately started to struggle in the form of organization and structure, and one of the main characteristics of this movement was to criticize the government and the political power. The members of this party included a wide ranging of people from the aristocracy, landowners, middle class capitalists, urban artisans, rural small owners and reformist scholars they were all part of this social and intellectual movement. It is important to state that the members had unparalleled beliefs as well as diverse ideologies, even Nour Mohammad Taraki was a member of this party for a period of time. Although Weesh Zelmian believed in a democratic Afghanistan, but the element of ethnicity considered more prominent in it. Nevertheless, from the point of view of some members, Weesh Zalmian is considered one of the most active political currents in the history of Afghanistan, which had pervasive power in government structures, and almost one third of the members of the parliament in the government of Shah Mahmood, the chancellor, were the members of that party.
Watan party was founded on 16th Jaddi, 1329 by Mir Gholam Mohammad Ghbar and Mir Mohammad Sediq Farhang and some others. The People’s Party (Hezba Khalgh) was also founded in 1329 by Abdul Rahman Mahmoudi. There were two political-social elements that came under the title of the party for the first time in the history of Afghanistan and started their activities. Proceeding that era, in the 80s and 90s, many political parties due to the ups and downs of the political situation, including opposition parties from political related ideologies up to national and nationalist parties; from religious movements to jihadi parties were formed in Afghanistan. (Ghobar 1368, 2/238-258)