Afghanistan's last king Mohammed Zahir Shah passed away, local radio Arman reported Monday. 

The report said the king died on Sunday night. Afghan President Hamid Karzai would hold an urgent press conference in a short time, during which he is expected to address the issue.

Zahir Shah, who was born into the Pashtun Barakzai dynasty of Afghanistan in 1914, ruled this country from 1933 to 1973. 

In 1964, he promulgated a new constitution. He instituted programs of political and economic modernization, ushering in a democratic legislature, education for women and other such changes.

These reforms put him at odds with the religious militants who opposed him. His critics claim Zahir Shah's rule as one of the darkest times of economic mismanagement in Afghanistan. 

In 1973, his cousin and former Prime Minister Mohammed Daoud Khan staged a coup, and established a republican government while Zahir Shah was in Italy undergoing eye surgery. Following this coup, Zahir Shah abdicated in August, ending the Barakzai Dynasty.

Zahir Shah lived in exile in Italy for twenty-nine years. In April 2002, he returned to Afghanistan months after the extremist Taliban regime was toppled down by the U.S.-led Afghan War.