Constitution of Afghanistan

The Constitution of Afghanistan is the supreme law of the state Afghanistan, which serves as the legal framework between the Afghan government and the Afghan citizens. Although Afghanistan (Afghan Empire) was made a state in 1747 by Ahmad Shah Durrani, the earliest Afghan constitution was written during the reign of Emir Abdur Rahman Khan in the 1890s followed by the 1923 version.

The current Afghan constitution was approved by the consensus in January 2004 after the 2003 loya jirga. The Constitution consists of 162 articles and was officially signed by Hamid Karzai on January 26, 2004. It evolved out of the Afghan Constitution Commission mandated by the Bonn Agreement. The constitution provides for an elected President and National Assembly. The transitional government of interim president Hamid Karzai was put in place after the June 2002 loya jirga. The first presidential elections after the new constitution was in effect, took place in October 2004, and Karzai was elected to a five-year term. The first elections for the National Assembly were delayed until September 2005.

The National Assembly of Afghanistan consists of two houses: the Wolesi Jirga (House of the People) and the Meshrano Jirga (House of Elders).