The Taliban took control of Afghanistan on August 16, 2021. The militant islamist group got what it wanted at last- the country they urged for since 2 decades.
The Taliban was giving television interviews by the evening of the same day. Ashraf Ghani had fled the country leaving his Presidential palace behind.
We also saw a desperate escape of people when they found that Taliban was in rule now with many clamouring to board flights.
The Pentagon sent additional troops to help evacuate the people from the US embassy. It was afterall a failed US effort to transform an Afghan society even after spending trillions of dollars and at the cost of its own soldiers.
“We have reached a victory that wasn’t expected … we should show humility in front of Allah,” said Baradar, Taliban’s political bureau’s head.
“Now it’s about how we serve and secure our people and ensure their future to the best of our ability,” he added.
In this article we will be discussing Ashraf Ghani, the now escaped President of Afghanistan before Taliban 2021.
Ashraf Ghani: About
Mohammed Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai was the 14th President of Afghanistan.
He is an academician, politician, economist, who became the President from September 2014 to August 2021.
He is an anthropologist by education and served as the Minister of Finance and Chancellor of Kabul University.
Work before becoming the President:
Before becoming the President of Afghanistan, Ghani was the professor of anthropology at John Hopkins University and later worked with the World Bank also.
He led Afghanistan towards the economic recovery after the collapse of the Taliban Government in 2002.
He is also a member of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor. This is an independent initiative hosted by the United Nations Development Programme.
Afghan Presidential Elections 2014-21:
Ghani was an independent politician and came fourth in the 2009 presidential election. He was behind Hamid Karzai, Abdullah Abdullah, and Ramazan Bashardost.
In the first round of the 2014 presidential election, he secured 35% of the votes. But in the second round Ghani secured around 55.3% of the votes. As a result, chaos ensued and the United States intervened to form a unity government. Ashraf Ghani became the President then.
Early Life:
Ghani was born on 19th May 1949 in Logar Province of the Kingdom of Afghanistan.
He belongs to the Ahmadzai Pashtun tribe.
He attended the Lake Oswego High School in Lake Oswego, Oregon and graduated in 1967.
Ghani also attended the American University in beirut where he graduated in 1973.
Ghani joined the World Bank in 1991, working on projects in East and South Asia during the mid-1990s
He left his posts at the UN and World Bank to join the new Afghan government in 2001 as the chief advisor to President Karzai.
Also Read| Origins of Taliban: Know the history and what this Islamist group actually wants here
Comments
All Comments (0)
Join the conversation