KABUL: The plaster is falling off the walls of the shabby Soviet-built concrete tower block with run-down corridors and gaping holes where the hall windows should be. The dull apartment block is home to Masuda Jalal, a woman who has made history in Afghanistan this year and might possibly rock the country again next year.

The paediatrician was the first woman to run for the interim presidency after the country was freed from the Taliban regime following the 11 September 2001 attacks.

Last year she lost to Hamid Karzai, the US-backed candidate now transitional president, but she intends to challenge him again in the first free elections which are due to take place in Afghanistan in ten months.

In June of last year, the mother-of-three caused a sensation when she suddenly announced her candidacy in the Loya Jirga.

Despite much resistance, however, she won the support of almost 11 per cent of the delegates, far less than the votes for Karzai but more than those received by the third contender in the elections.

Despite his international backing Karzai had not presented a programme, she says. Instead, his government was corrupt, dominated by warlords and endangering the peace process, she adds.

“They are sitting in their offices and are waiting for the donors,” Jalal says. “But what happened with the all the aid money? Karzai should be accountable to the Afghan people and the international community “for every dollar spent”, she says.

Jalal herself runs womens’ projects for the United Nation’s World Food Programme, a job which she already had under the Taliban regime when many of the current government members were in exile.

The Taliban jailed her for her commitment, Jalal says and referring to her candidacy, she adds, “I am exercising my rights as a citizen and human being.”

After last year’s Loya Jirga she had received so much support from the Afghan people that she decided to try for office again, she says.

“Afghanistan cannot be on a drip forever,” says the doctor.—dpa