President H.Karzai & Cabinet
The President
Hamid Karzai was born on the 24th of December, 1957 (Quaus 9th, 1336) in the village of Karz, near Kandahar, Afghanistan.
His grandfather, Khair Mohammad Khan, had served during Afghanistan’s war of independence and as the Deputy Speaker of the Senate. His father, Abdul Ahad Karzai, was a tribal (Popalzai) elder and a significant national political figure, who served as the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament during the 1960s. Abdul Karzai moved with his family to Kabul upon his election to the Parliament.
Hamid Karzai studied at Mahmood Hotaki Elementary School, Sayed Jamaluddin Afghani School, and Habibia High School. After graduating from high school, he traveled to India as an exchange student in 1976, and was accepted to study for his Masters Degree in International Relations and Political Science from Simla University. He obtained his Master’s Degree in 1983, shortly after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (which began in 1979).
Hamid Karzai then traveled to Pakistan, joining the Mujahideen fighters resisting the Soviet occupation of his homeland. In 1985, he traveled to Lille, France, to attend a three-month journalism course. When he returned to Peshawar, Pakistan, he served as the Director of Information and later as the Deputy Director of the Political Office of the National Liberation Front led by Professor Sebghatullah Mujadidi. After the formation of the transitional government of the Mujahideen in 1989, he was appointed Director of the Foreign Relations Unit in the Office of the President of the Interim Government.
When the Mujahideen Government was established in Kabul in 1992, Hamid Karzai was appointed Deputy Foreign Minister. Two years later, when the civil war between the various Mujahideen groups began, he resigned from his post, and began to work actively for the organization of a national Loya Jirga (Grand Council). A devoted Muslim and Afghan patriot, he believed that only through a Loya Jirga could Afghanistan’s difficulties be overcome, and the differences between the competing parties resolved peacefully. This belief was borne out by the Emergency Loya Jirga of 2002 and the Constitutional Loya Jirga in 2003.
In August 1999, Abdul Ahad Karzai, who was organizing resistance to the Taliban from his base in Quetta, Pakistan, was assassinated by the Taliban and their foreign supporters. The commitment of the Karzai family, and of Hamid Karzai in particular, to ridding Afghanistan of this foreign menace was not shaken by this tragedy, and he continued his father’s struggle against the Taliban.
Hamid Karzai returned to Uruzgan Province in October 2001, and worked to coordinate local efforts to rid Afghanistan of the Taliban and their supporters. On December 5th, 2001, while he was still in Afghanistan leading these efforts, he was elected Chairman of the Interim Administration of Afghanistan, by participants at the UN-sponsored Bonn Conference. He, along with the appointed Cabinet, took his oath of office on December 22nd of that year.
His role as leader of the country was confirmed by members of the Emergency Loya Jirga, when he was elected President of the Transitional Government on June 13th, 2002. During Afghanistan’s first Presidential Election, on October 9th, 2004, Hamid Karzai won the majority of the votes, and was elected to a 5-year term as President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. He took his oath of allegiance at Salam Khana Palace on December 7th, 2004, in the presence of dignitaries and officials from around the world.
As President, Hamid Karzai is seen as a uniting force for all Afghans. He has long been an advocate of improving human rights, and particularly, the role of women in Afghanistan. He has appointed several women to his Cabinet, and recently appointed the first female Governor in Afghanistan’s history.
Hamid Karzai has been awarded many honours, among them a Honourary Knighthood from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth (2003), the Philadelphia Liberty Medal (2004), and the American Bar Association-Asia Rule of Law Award (2003).
In 1999, he married Dr. Zeenat Quraishi. He has six brothers and one sister. He speaks Pashtu, Dari, Urdu and English fluently, and enjoys riding horses and studying philosophy.
Dr. Zalmai Rassoul
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
In January 2010 Dr. Zalmai Rassoul received the confidence vote of the Afghan National Assembly to serve as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Prior to his appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Zalmai Rassoul served as National Security Advisor of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan since June 2002. As National Security Adviser, Dr. Rassoul rendered a constructive role in collaborating activities of Afghan security institutions with Afghanistan’s foreign policy. Moreover, among his numerous responsibilities included conducting national threat assessments and National Security Policy
Dr. Rassoul has accompanied H.E. President Hamid Karzai on all official visits since the establishment of the Interim Administration in 2001.
Prior to his appointment as National Security Adviser by President Karzai, Dr. Rassoul was nominated by President Karzai as the Minister of Civil Aviation, and unanimously approved by the Cabinet in March 2002. Under his able leadership, Afghanistan’s aviation sector was revived after many years of United Nations sanctions against the Taliban and Afghanistan. Dr. Rassoul played an important role in Afghanistan’s readmission to the Int’l Civil Aviation Organization (IATA) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Prior to his service in the current Afghan Government, Dr. Rassoul served as a delegate to the historic November 2001 Bonn Conference. Following the Bonn Conference, he accompanied President Karzai to Kabul for the inauguration of the Afghan Interim Administration.
Since 1998, Dr. Rassoul devoted his full attention to the convening of the Emergency Loya Jirga (Grand Assembly) as the director of the Secretariat of His Majesty, Mohammad Zaher Shah, the Former King of Afghanistan. Under Dr. Rassoul’s leadership, the Secretariat in Rome played a key role in the future political transition of Afghanistan. Prior to the Bonn Conference, His Majesty dispatched numerous delegations to world capitals, Afghanistan’s neighbors, and Afghanistan itself to build support for the convening of the Emergency Loya Jirga. Dr. Rassoul accompanied President Karzai, at that time a leading member of the Executive Committee of the Loya Jirga, on those missions. Dr. Rassoul was distinctly suited for this work as a result of his long term, close contact with Afghan resistance and his 1980 founding and publishing of the monthly publication Afghan Reality created to increase awareness and be a voice of information from inside Afghanistan to the international community regarding the plight of the Afghan people. Dr. Rassoul has been deeply politically active for several decades in the struggle for the freedom of Afghanistan and the right of the Afghan people to decide their future in accordance with their free will.
Dr. Rassoul was born in Kabul, Afghanistan and attended Istiqlal French High School where he graduated as the valedictorian. Subsequently, he traveled to France to study on a scholarship at the Paris Medical School and received his M.D. in 1973.
Dr. Rassoul is fluent in Dari, Pashto, French, English, and Italian and has a working knowledge of Arabic. He has over 30 publications in European and American medical journals and is a member of the American Society of Nephrology.
Cabinet
Afghanistan’s present cabinet consists of 25 ministers and one senior minister. Each was nominated by President Karzai, approved by the Wolesi Jirga (House of People), and sworn in by the President on May 2, 2006.
The previous cabinet was appointed by President Karzai upon formation of the transitional government in 2002. The transitional cabinet was dissolved after parliamentary elections on September 18, 2005.
The present cabinet of Afghanistan consists of 16 ministers who were appointed by President Karzai and introduced to the House of People (Wolesi Jirga) on December 19, 2009.
Vice Presidents
First Vice President: H.E. Mohammad Qasim FAHIM
Second Vice President: H.E.Mohammad Karim KHALILI
The following ministers were approved by the Afghan parliament:
Minister of Foreign Affairs: Dr. Zalmai Rassoul
Minister of National Defense: General Abdul Rahim Wardak
Minister of Interior: Mohamad Hanif Atmar
Minister of Finance: Dr. Omar Zakhilwal
Minister of Justice: Habibullah Ghaleb
Minister of Education: Ghulam Farooq Wardak
Minister of Economy and Manpower: Abdul Hadi Arghandiwal
Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development: Jarullah Mansoori
Minister of Work and Social Affairs, Martyrs & Disabled: Amena Afzali
Minister of Counter Narcotics: Zarar Ahmad Moqbel
Minister for Information, Culture and Tourism: Sayed Makhdum Rahin
Minister of Mines: Wahidullah Shahrani
Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and and Livestock: Muhammad Asif Rahimi
Minister of Haj and Islamic Affairs: Dr. Mohammad Yousuf Neyazi
Not approved yet:
Minister of Higher Education: Sarwar Danesh
Minister of Public Welfare: Sohrab Ali Saffary
Minister of Public Health: Dr. Suraya Dalil
Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and and Livestock: Muhammad Asif Rahimi
Minister of Borders & Tribal Affairs: Arsala Jamal
Minister of Urban Development: Sultan Hussain
Minister of Refugees: Eng. Abdul Rahim
Minister of Commerce and Industry: Ghulam Mohammad Yalaqi
Minister of Women’s Affairs: Mrs. Hassan Bano Ghazanfar
Minister for Transport and Civil Aviation: Mohammadulla Batash
No names were submitted for Minister of Energy and Water and Minister of Telecommunication and Information Technology.