Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai (; 30 March 1944 – 17 October 2021) was an Afghan

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

. He served as acting

prime minister of Afghanistan The prime minister of Afghanistan, officially the prime minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is the head of government of Afghanistan. The position was created in 1927 as an official appointed by the king of Afghanistan. The holder ...

from 1995 to 1996. He was an ethnic

Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ;), also known as Pakhtuns, or Pathans, are an Iranic ethnic group primarily residing in southern and eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. They were historically also referred to as Afghans until 1964 after the ...

from the Ahmadzai sub-tribe.

Biography

Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai was born in Malang, a village in the Khaki Jabbar district of

Kabul Province Kabul (Dari/Pashto: ), situated in the east of the country, is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. The capital of the province is Kabul city, which is Afghanistan's capital and largest city. The population of the Kabul Province is ...

. He studied

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

Kabul University Kabul University (KU; ) is one of the major and oldest institutions of higher education in Afghanistan. It is in the 3rd District of the capital Kabul near the Ministry of Higher Education. It was founded in 1931 by King Mohammed Nadir Shah, wh ...

and then worked in the agriculture ministry. In 1972 he received a scholarship to study in the United States, at

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado, United States. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University Syst ...

. He received a master's degree in 1975 and became a professor at

King Faisal University King Faisal University (KFU) ( ') is a public university in Hofuf, Saudi Arabia. Founded in 1975, it is named after King Faisal bin Abdulalziz, the ruler of Saudi Arabia from 1964 until 1975. KFU was initially established with four colleges: tw ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

. Following the communist coup in 1978, Ahmadzai returned to Afghanistan to join the

mujahideen ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' (), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' (), an Arabic term that broadly refers to people who engage in ''jihad'' (), interpreted in a jurisprudence of Islam as the fight on behalf of God, religion or the commun ...

. He was a close associate of

Burhanuddin Rabbani Burhānuddīn Rabbānī (; 20 September 1940 – 20 September 2011) was an Afghanistan, Afghan politician and teacher who served as the sixth president of Afghanistan from 1992 to 1996, and again from November to December 2001 (in exile from 199 ...

, being deputy of his Jamiat-e Islami party, but then left and joined

Abdul Rasul Sayyaf Abdulrab Rasul Sayyaf ( ; ; born 1946) is an exiled Afghan politician and former Afghan mujahideen, mujahideen commander. He took part in the war against the Marxist–Leninist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) government in the 198 ...

Islamic Dawah Organisation of Afghanistan The Islamic Dawah Organization of Afghanistan ( ''Tanzim-e Da'wat-e Islami-ye Afghanistan'') is a political party in Afghanistan led by Abdul Rasul Sayyaf. Founded in the early 1980s as the Islamic Union for the Liberation of Afghanistan, it wa ...

party in 1992, the year that communist rule ended. He served as a minister in the post-communist Afghan government, variously as interior, construction and education minister, and later became prime minister between 1995 and 1996, although he has downplayed the import of these posts given the chaos due to the fighting at that time. Ahmadzai left Afghanistan in 1996 after the government fled the

Taliban , leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders , leader1_name = {{indented plainlist, * Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013) * Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016) * Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...

advance. He lived in exile in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

and

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, before he returned to Afghanistan in 2001 after the fall of Taliban. He was an independent candidate in the 2004 Afghan presidential election supporting an Islamic system of government. He secured 0.8% of the total votes counted.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahmadzai, Ahmad Shah 1944 births 2021 deaths Prime ministers of Afghanistan Pashtun politicians Islamic Dawah Organisation of Afghanistan politicians Academic staff of King Faisal University People from Kabul Province

Biography

See also

References