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Gul Agha Sherzai
ګل آغا شيرزی

Sherzai speaking at the Rule of Law Conference for Eastern Afghanistan in October 2009
Incumbent
Assumed office 
2004
Born Kandahar, Afghanistan
Political party Independent
Religion Muslim

Gul Agha Sherzai (Pashto: ګل آغا شيرزی) is the current Governor of Nangarhar province in Afghanistan. He previously served as Governor of Kandahar province, in the early 1990s and from 2001 until 2003.

Contents

Biography

Gul Agha was born by the name of Shafiq to a poor restaurant owner. He took the name Gul Agha when he joined his father in the Mujahideen, who were fighting against the Soviet invasion. His father was murdered and he added Sherzai (Pashto for "son of lion") as his last name. He is an ethnic Pashtun from the Kandahar area. After the collapse of the PDPA government in 1991, Gul Agha served as Governor of Kandahar from 1992 until 1994.

Actions during U.S. invasion

His capture of Kandahar city in late 2001, with assistance from American special forces and airstrikes, marked the first time territory in southern Afghanistan had been captured from the Taliban. In August 2003, President Hamid Karzai decreed that officials could no longer hold both military and civil posts, and replaced Gul Agha with Yousef Pashtun as Governor of Kandahar.

Opium trade and Fundamentalism

According to a report Mr. Sherzai had admitted to receiving $1-million a week from his share of import duties and from the opium trade and was considered violent and dangerous.[1]

Political career after Kandahar

In 2004, Sherzai was appointed Governor of Nangarhar Province, after a spell as "Special Advisor" to Hamid Karzai. Sherzai was removed as Kandahar Governor after criticisms of his warlord-style leadership, poor human rights record and suspected involvement in opium trafficking in the province. However, Sherzai is an important political ally of Karzai, and looks to play a role in Afghan politics for some time to come.

Sherzai speaking in 2009 with the governors of Nuristan, Laghman and Kunar province.

In July 2006, Sherzai narrowly escaped an assassination attempt at a funeral outside Jalalabad. The attempt killed five police officers and wounded several more people, including some children. He opened the newly built highway connecting Jalalabad city with Torkham, which is the border town between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan's prime minister Shaukat Aziz were also present there during the inauguration.[2] Taliban forces took credit for the attack.

In January 2009 an article by Ahmad Majidyar of the American Enterprise Institute included Sherzai on a list of fifteen possible candidates in the 2009 Afghan Presidential election.[3] He announced on 2 May 2009 that he would not be a candidate.[4] Nevertheless his name was on the August 20, 2009 ballot, and preliminary results placed him 17th in a field of 38.[5]

In June 2009, Gul Agha Sherzai was the subject of an investigation by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC-TV) international affairs program "Foreign Correspondent". Titled "The Bulldozer", the report investigated Sherzai's alleged links to the opium trade and Haji Bashir Noorzai, the Afghan drug baron now serving a life sentence in a US prison for drug importation offences.[6]

Guantanamo connection

Gul Agha Sherzai's name was mentioned during the administrative reviews of three Guantanamo captives.

  • Abdul Razzaq Hekmati was alleged to have participated in a plot to kill Sherzai. After his death in custody Carlotta Gall and Andy Worthington published a profile of Hekmati that challenged the credibility of the allegations against him, because the Guantanamo intelligence analysts never realized that the Taliban had placed a $1 million bounty on his head.
  • Haji Shahzada, a prominent landowner in Kandahar, was asked to explain why he might have been falsely denounced to the Americans.[7] He explained that he might have enemies who would denounce him because he worked with Gul Agha Sherzai who he described as the "current Governor of Kandahar".
  • An affidavit submitted on behalf of Haji Bismullah by his brother Haji Wali Mohammed, listed Gul Agha Sherzai as one of the prominent Afghans who would vouch for Bismullah.

References

  1. ^ Corruption eats away at Afghan government
  2. ^ Qaeda behind assassination attempt: Sherzai
  3. ^ Ahmad Majidyar (2009-01). "Afghanistan's Presidential Election". American Enterprise Institute. Archived from the original on 2009-09-18. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aei.org%2FdocLib%2F20090129-No1MEO23850g.pdf&date=2009-09-18. "Shirzai is currently governor of eastern Nangarhar province. Originally from Kandahar, he was credited for his efforts to rid Nangarhar of opium poppies. He has not spoken about his candidacy but is thought to aspire to the office." 
  4. ^ "Obama ready to cut Karzai adrift". The Independent. 2009-01-23. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/obama-ready-to-cut-karzai-adrift-1513407.html. Retrieved 2009-01-23. 
  5. ^ "Preliminary Result of Afghanistan Presidential Contest". Sabawoon online. 2009-08-20. Archived from the original on 2009-08-30. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sabawoon.com%2Findex.php%3Fpage%3Dafghanelection&date=2009-08-30. 
  6. ^ http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2009/s2600003.htm
  7. ^ OARDEC (date redacted). "Summarized Unswon Detainee Statement (ISN 952)". United States Department of Defense. pp. pages 88-96. http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt_arb/Set_50_3381-3489.pdf#88. Retrieved 2008-03-26. 

External links

Preceded by
None		 Governor of Kandahar Province, Afghanistan
2001–2003		 Succeeded by
Yousef Pashtun
Preceded by
Haji Din Mohammad		 Governor of Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan
2004–Present		 Succeeded by
Incumbent







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