by Abdullah Qazi / February 16, 2009
Last updated February 10, 2016
Anwar-ul Haq Ahadi is the chairman and co-founder of the New National Front of Afghanistan (NNF), which was publicly launched on January 14, 2016. The NNF political party views the current unity government of Afghanistan under President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Dr. Abdullah Abdullah as a failure.
Previously, since 1995, Ahadi was the head of the Wakman faction 1 of the Afghan Social Democratic Party (Afghan Mellat), a party whose ideology is Pashtun nationalism, and is viewed as being ultra Pashtun ethnocentrist. On February 10, 2016, Pajhwok Afghan News reported that an official from the party said that Ahadi has been kicked out because his “contacts and relations with others don’t represent our stance”. The official alledged that Ahadi has joined “mafia politics” and was treating the party as his personal “fiefdom”.
Ahadi served in various government positions, since leaving his job he had since 1987 as a Professor of Political Science at Providence University in Rhode Island, USA. Beginning in late 2001, he served as the head of Afghanistan’s central bank (Da Afghanistan Bank) under former President Hamid Karzai. Then he became Afghanistan’s Finance Minister from December 2004 to February 2009, until he resigned and was replaced by Omar Zakhilwal. Ahadi resigned because he wanted to run against President Karzai in the 2009 presidential elections. He later dropped out and threw his support behind President Karzai. Karzai then nominated him as the Minister of Economy. He received a vote of no confidence from Afghanistan’s Wolesi Jirga and so he was replaced. Later in mid 2010, Karzai appointed him as Afghanistan’s Minister of Transportation and Commerce.
Ahadi was born on August 12, 1951 in the Surobi district of Kabul province. He is married to Fatima Gilani, who is the daughter of a famous ex-Mujahideen leader, Pir Ahmad Gilani. Gilani is the head of Mahaz-e Melli-ye Islami-ye Afghanistan (National Islamic Front of Afghanistan).
Ahadi completed his Bachelor’s degree at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. He also has a Master’s degree in Fiscal Affairs and Management and a PhD in Political Science from Northwestern University. He is a published author and speaks Pashto, Dari and English.
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Note: The Afghan Mellat party was founded in 1966 by Ghulam Mohammad Farhad. In the mid 1980s, disagreements caused the party to break into three factions, one lead by Shams-ul-Huda Shams, one by Qudratullah Hadad and the third by Mohammad Amin Wakman. Shams faction is also still around today, however, it is now called “Afghan Mellat Milli Motaraqi Gwand” (Afghan National People’s Progressive Party).
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