Afghan Rivals Agree on Power-Sharing Plan

Afghanistan’s rival leaders signed a peace pact Sunday and agreed on a power-sharing plan aimed at ending fighting that has killed an estimated 5,000 people.

More than half a dozen cease-fires have been signed since Muslim factions ousted the Communists in April and began warring among themselves in a struggle for power. Fighting continued Sunday in the Afghan capital, Kabul, but it was not clear if the combatants had been told there was a new peace agreement.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the architect of the peace talks, said the cease-fire will be monitored by the Organization of the Islamic Conference and representatives of each of 10 factions.

“We pray that as a result of this agreement there will now be peace, harmony and unity,” Sharif said.

Under the accord, Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani is to remain as head of state for the next 18 months while his bitter enemy, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, chief of the hard-line Hezb-i-Islami party, becomes prime minister.

The signing was delayed for several hours by what Pakistani officials termed a last-minute hitch as Rabbani and Hekmatyar wrangled over the powerful post of defense minister.

Rabbani wanted Ahmed Shah Masoud to remain in the post, which he has held since the Muslim insurgents overran Kabul. But Hekmatyar argued that no rebel group should control both the presidency and the Defense Ministry.

The rebel leaders and Sharif were expected to travel to Saudi Arabia, the site of Islam’s holiest shrines, to swear allegiance to the agreement.

Pakistani officials seemed fatalistic about the prospects for another round of bloodshed.

“All you can do is bring them together. You can’t go to their country and stand over them,” said Javed Akhtar, a spokesman for the prime minister’s office.