November 5, 2001	Monday	haba’an 18, 1422

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PESHAWAR, Nov 4: Former Afghan prime minister Abdus Samad Hamid has arrived in Pakistan as part of the efforts to bring anti-Taliban factions on a single platform, Afghan sources said.

The 65-year-old Samad Hamid, who was the prime minister during Zahir Shah’s rule, arrived in Islamabad on Saturday and was received by Pakistani officials at the airport. A doctor in political science, Samad Hamid, has been living in Switzerland. He was a member of the committee which drafted the 1964 Constitution of Afghanistan under the former king Zahir Shah.

Samad remained vice-chancellor of the Kabul University before becoming the minister for planning and later serving as Afghanistan’s deputy prime minister under the former monarch.

Afghan analysts describe Samad Hamid as a highly intelligent person who commands respect among the Afghan people. Considered as a Pakhtoon nationalist, Samad Hamid hails from the Mohammadzai tribe of Afghanistan. He, however, is not part of any current peace processes.

His friends describe him an intellectual man with a domineering personality but are sceptical of his ability to unite the various factions in Afghanistan. “He is intellectual and highly intelligent and is a good technocrat. But he has never been a public figure,” one of his friends said.

Samad Hamid has had no links with the so-called Rome Process headed by the former king but analysts say that he may eventually become part of the team.

The former Afghan prime minister is the second such person who arrived in recent days to unite the Afghan people. Earlier, Abdur Rahim Wardak, a military aide to the former king, arrived last week to organize an anti-Taliban force to overthrow the militia. American-educated, Wardak enjoys considerable respect among the Afghan groups.

A former Mujahideen commander said that Wardak had settled down to work immediately and was confident of his ability to organize an anti-Taliban force. Wardak, approached for comments by Dawn last week, had said that it was too early for him to say anything.