The same year Zahir's father died at the age of 33 leaving behind Zahira widowed mother, and a brother, Kabir who would later become a piano player.
At the age of 13, Zahir's family moved to Booksellers Avenue in Kabul and subsequently entered the French Isteqlal High School, earning the highest ranking in his class.
Zahir was a mandolin player and a backup singer for Akbar Ramish at the Isteqlal High school shows celebrating Afghan Independence Day.
Hamid Estemadi who had a great voice but did not sing publicly since he was a member of the royal family encouraged Zahir to take his place at the Afghanistan Day show.
At this orchestra Zahir showed immense talent as a vocalist and earned a scholarship to learn operatic and eastern classical music at Tchaikovsky Institute in Moscow in 1966.
The songs "Rasha dar dast baghban" and "Gar zolf preishanat" are of Ahmad Zahir and "Laila mah man shoda shaida" and "Ay mo telaie" are compositions of Jamal.
Howaida after the fall of the republic of Afghanistan into the hands of the Marxist communist regime found many opportunities on National Television and Radio Kabul.
He toured the world with stops in North America, Europe and Australia for his farewell concert where he broke his vow and sang in Pashto.