by S. Ghilzai / February 18, 2016
Updated by Abdullah Qazi on February 26, 2016
Other spellings of name: Nur ul-Haq Ulumi, Noorolhagh Oloumi, Noorulhaq Olumi
Noor-ul-Haq Olomi is an Afghan politician.
Noor-ul-Haq Olomi was born on August 15th 1941 in Kandahar province, to a family from the Pashtun tribe of Barakzai. He graduated from the University of Kabul in 1966, with honors. Being a member of the Parcham political party at the time, Olomi trained for his future military career in both the United States and the Soviet Union. During the Soviet Invasion, Olomi fought with the communist army against the mujahideen forces, moving up the ranks to Lieutenant. After winning the Battle of Jalalabad, Olomi was made the new Governor of Kandahar by President Najibullah Ahmadzai. As governor, he made a lot of changes, such as changing the mandatory army inscription for Afghan boys, and ousting of certain warlords from the area.
In 1992, Olomi, as commander of the Kandahar Corps, surrendered Kabul to the mujahideen, and then fled to Landgraaf, Netherlands. After the Taliban overthrow in 2001, he returned to Afghanistan. In 2005, he was elected as a Member of Parliament for Kandahar province, a post he maintained till 2010, when he failed to get re-elected. Under President Ashraf Ghani, Olomi was nominated for the position of Interior Minister, a position that cannot be held if one has dual citizenship. Giving up his Dutch nationality, Olomi was confirmed as Interior Minister in January of 2015. In February 2016, Afghan media reported that Olumi submitted his resignation due to differences with other officials. His office denied the reports, but on February 24th, the Presidential Palace officially announced his appointment as Afghanistan’s ambassador to the Netherlands. Olomi has two daughters and a son who currently still live in the Netherlands.
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