by Abdullah Qazi / October 16, 2008
Abdul Qayum Karzai is President Hamid Karzai’s older brother, a businessman and a former member of the National Assembly (parliament). Many Afghans were very critical of Abdul Qayum Karzai for his very poor attendance in parliament. In the summer of 2008, the speaker of the parliament, Yunis Qanuni began publishing the regular attendance tallies, and this put added pressure on Karzai to respond. In October 2008, Abdul Qayum Karzai gave up his seat in the parliament and cited health problems as the reason he missed so many parliamentary sessions.
Qayum Karzai has also been involved in secret meetings to work out some sort of peace agreement with the Taliban. He has even traveled to Saudi Arabia to see if he can get their help as well in terms of bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table, and ending the Taliban war against the Afghan government.