On 7 March 1993, rival Afghan leaders signed the Islamabad Accord, a power-sharing agreement intended to halt the intense factional fighting in Kabul and create a new government arrangement. The accord named Gulbuddin Hekmatyar as prime minister in an effort to bring his forces into the formal political process and reduce the bombardment of the capital. For a short period the agreement produced a pause in large-scale hostilities and rearranged ministerial portfolios among warring parties. However, the accord proved fragile: disputes among militias and mutual distrust quickly undermined implementation, and the fighting soon resumed. The Islamabad Accord became a prominent example of the difficulties of negotiating durable peace in a landscape of competing militias and personalized power. Its failure contributed to continued instability throughout the 1990s and the eventual rise of new armed actors.
