Page 59

civil war, Heavy losses due to interior disorder and anarchy prevented development and progress. At the end of the revolution, when Mohammad Nadir Shah, the martyred king, came to the throne, people wished first of all to be organized and reformed. Attention was paid to granting the people their Rights and the Showarai - Milli (Parliament) which was brought into existence is counted one of the outstanding achievements of King Nadir's reign. Among the important acomplishments of that reign are the foundation of the National Pank (which in those days was called Shirkat - e - Ashami ), the establishment of the College of medicine and the Military College. The late King was intending to lead the country by his sagacity towards further development and progress when he was assassinated, leaving the hearts of the nation bereaved. When His Majesty Almutawakal Allallah Mohammad Zahir Shah, the present King succeeded to the throne of Afghanistan, he set himself to carry out his famous father's ideas and, with the cooperation of his learned uncles, carried on the the programme of reform and turned his attention to the establishment of the Imperial Pank, a number of Tradeing, Companies textile mills - 13 - بانك ملی