By Abdullah Qazi – last updated August 10, 2008
Abdul Satar Sirat is a very experienced Afghan politician. During the Bonn talks in 2001, Sirat was a representative of the Rome Group (former king Mohammad Zahir’s supporters). Sirat was initially chosen to lead an interim government, however, he was asked to step aside in favor of Hamid Karzai because of his ethnicity. Sirat is an Uzbek and Karzai is a Pashtun. In October 2004, Sirat ran for president, challenging Hamid Karzai, however, he received less than 1% of the votes. During the Soviet war, Sirat spent a lot of time teaching abroad. Abdul Satar Sirat held various ministerial positions in the early 1970s. Sirat was born in 1937 in province of Samangan.