Ramazan Bashardost (; born 1961) is an Afghan politician who was the former planning minister in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

and a former member of the

National Assembly of Afghanistan The National Assembly (, ), also known as the Parliament of Afghanistan or simply as the Afghan Parliament, was the legislature of Afghanistan in various forms from the monarchy, republican, communist and liberal democratic periods between 1931 ...

. He was an independent candidate in the

2009 Afghan presidential election Presidential elections were held in Afghanistan on 20 August 2009. The election resulted in victory for incumbent President of Afghanistan, president Hamid Karzai, who received 49.7% of the vote, while his main rival Abdullah Abdullah finished ...

Early life and education

Ramzan Bashardost was born in Qarabagh District,

Ghazni Province Ghazni (; ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in southeastern Afghanistan. The province contains 19 Districts of Afghanistan, districts, encompassing over a thousand villages and roughly 1.3 million people, making it the 5th most ...

of Afghanistan to a Hazara family. He is fluent in Persian and

Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...

. He completed his primary and intermediate education in Qarabagh and later in Maimana, capital of Fariyab in northern Afghanistan. Months after the 1978 coup d'état, Bashardost left Afghanistan for Iran. He finished high school in Iran and then immigrated into Pakistan. In 1983, he left Pakistan for France, where he spent more than 20 years, earning degrees in law and political science. In 1989 he enrolled at Grenoble University, where he did his master's in law. In 1990, he did his

master's A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

diplomacy Diplomacy is the communication by representatives of State (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, non-governmental institutions intended to influence events in the international syste ...

from

Paris University The University of Paris (), known metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated with the ca ...

. In 1992, he did his master's in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

. In 1995, Bashardost received his Ph.D. in

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

from France's Toulouse University. He wrote his thesis on the UN's role against the

Soviet invasion of Afghanistan The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until it dissolved in 1991. During its existence, it was the largest country by are ...

Career

After years in exile, Bashardost returned to Afghanistan in 2002 to work in the UN Department of Afghanistan's Foreign Affairs Ministry. In 2003, he was appointed as director of European and Western Political Affairs Department in the ministry. In March 2004, he was appointed minister of planning but resigned that December in protest at the government's alleged inability to take action over 2,000 Afghan and international non governmental organisations (NGOs) outlawed by his ministry in Afghanistan. In 2004 Bashardost published his book, Basic Political, Military and Diplomatic Laws of Afghanistan – from the era of Ahmad Shah Baba (1225 Hejri) to current years, in which he presented his analysis of the history of laws in Afghanistan. The book won an award at the Academy of Political Sciences of France, the first award won by an independent Afghan scientist and scholar. Bashardost has no affiliations with any tribal, military or political party. He is in an independent scholar and political activist, well known for his support and defense of

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

. He is well known as a prominent voice against the corrupt Afghan authorities of the past three decades, and a bold reformer and critic of the government. In 2004/05 he briefly served as Afghanistan's planning minister. He was critical of the role played by NGOs and claimed that majority of them were a source of Afghanistan money drain. He particularly highlighted the hefty amounts paid to the NGO employees and ministers as compared to the average income of less than a dollar average national income. Controversy surrounded his stance, and he had to resign under government and foreign pressure. However, his outspoken criticism of the government and his firm stances against corruption and for public welfare won him widespread support. In 2006 he was elected as Kabul's representative in the parliamentary elections. He won the third highest number of votes, which spanned across ethnic and linguistic groups. In 2010 RFE/RL's Radio has selected him as the Person Of The Year and the Afghanistan' Gandhi.

Presidential election 2009

Bashardost registered for the presidential election on 7 May 2009. His first VP is agriculture institute professor Mohammad Mosa Barekzai, and the second VP is Afifa Maroof, who works in the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. A white dove, the symbol of peace, is Bashardost's emblem for the election. Preliminary results placed him 3rd in a field of 38. In the provinces

Ghazni Ghazni (, ), historically known as Ghaznayn () or Ghazna (), also transliterated as Ghuznee, and anciently known as Alexandria in Opiana (), is a city in southeastern Afghanistan with a population of around 190,000 people. The city is strategica ...

and Daykundi he beat the two main candidates Karzai and Abdullah. Bashardost is mostly known for his strong rejection of corruption. ''"In the Afghan administration now, money is the law (...). Afghanistan is the only country in the world where corruption is legal"''. Because of his sometimes offbeat stance and style, he has been nicked as a''"popular

Don Quixote , the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...

'' and a maverick."Anti-corruption ‘Mr Bean’ candidate Ramazan Bashardost eyes presidency"
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Literature

Basic Political, Military and Diplomatic Laws of Afghanistan, written and published in 2004.

References

External links

True Afghan Eyes
Interview with Dr. Bashardost
Afghan Elections Dossier - Ramazan Bashardost, August 2009 - Radio France InternationaleInterview with Radio France Internationale in English, August 2009
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bashardost, Ramazan Planning ministers of Afghanistan Members of the House of the People (Afghanistan) 1961 births Living people Hazara politicians People from Ghazni Province Afghan expatriates in France Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas University alumni Toulouse 1 University Capitole alumni 2000s in Afghanistan 2010s in Afghanistan 21st-century Afghan politicians