Mohammad Hanif Atmar

Mohammad Haneef Atmar (Pashto: محمد حنیف اتمر; born 10 September 1968)[4] is the current acting Minister of Foreign Affairs and a former Interior Minister of Afghanistan.[5] He was removed from the Ministry of Interior Affairs by Hamid Karzai in the wake of attacks on the June 2010 Afghan Peace Jirga.[6][7] Before that he worked with several international humanitarian organisations and served as Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development and Minister of Education. In 2011, he was part of the Right and Justice party. During his time in office, he has visited several countries to get funding to stabilise Afghanistan. Atmar served as the National Security Advisor to Ashraf Ghani from 2014 to 2018, when he resigned due to disagreement with Ghani on certain issues. In late 2018, Atmar announced his candidacy for the April 2019 presidential elections, indicating he firmly believes a peace deal with the Taliban is possible.[8] He later withdrew his candidature. In April 2020, he was appointed as the foreign minister.[9]

Mohammad Haneef Atmar
Atmar in meeting with Ali Shamkhani in Tehran, August 2016
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Assumed office
4 April 2020
PresidentAshraf Ghani
Preceded byMohammad Haroon Chakhansuri (acting)[1][2]
National Security Adviser of Afghanistan
In office
1 November 2014 – 25 August 2018
PresidentAshraf Ghani
Preceded byShaida Mohammad Abdali
Succeeded byHamdullah Mohib
Minister of Interior
In office
11 October 2008 – 6 June 2010
PresidentHamid Karzai
Preceded byAhmad Moqbel Zarar
Succeeded byBismillah Khan Mohammadi
Minister of Education
In office
2 May 2006[3] – 1 October 2008
PresidentHamid Karzai
Preceded byNoor Mohammad Qarqin
Succeeded byGhulam Farooq Wardak
Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development
In office
2002[3] – 2008
Succeeded byMohammad Ehsan Zia
Personal details
Born (1968-09-10) 10 September 1968
Laghman, Afghanistan
NationalityAfghan
Political partyTruth and Justice (since 2011)

Early life

Atmar was born in 1968 as son of Mohammad Asef Atmar in Laghman Province of Afghanistan.[4] He is an ethnic Pashtun.[5] As a young adult, he worked for the KHAD, an Afghan security and intelligence agency with strong ties to the Soviet KGB,[10] including with a special-operations unit.[5] During the Soviet–Afghan War he fought against Mujahids, and lost a leg defending Jalalabad in 1987.[5] Atmar left for the United Kingdom after the fall of Kabul.[5]

Studies and humanitarian work

In the UK he earned two degrees at the University of York: a diploma in Information Technology and Computers, and an M.A. in Public Policy, International Relations and Post-war Reconstruction studies, which he studied for from 1996 to 1997.[3] He speaks fluent Pashto, Dari, English, Urdu, and Hindi.[4] In 1992 Atmar began advising on Afghanistan and Pakistan for humanitarian agencies, which he would continue for two years.[3] Following that he went to the Norwegian Church Aid, where he served as Program Manager for six years until 2001.[3] That same year he was hired as the Deputy Director General of the International Rescue Committee for Afghanistan,[3] but after the September 11th attacks, the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, and the Bonn Agreement creating an Afghan Transitional Authority under Hamid Karzai, Atmar left to join the new government.

Political career

Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development

In 2002, Atmar was invited to join the Transitional Government as the Minister of Rural Rehabilitation & Development and was confirmed with the same portfolio in the cabinet of the newly elected President Karzai in December 2004. As one of the youngest members of cabinet and a technocrat, he directed his energies into transforming a dysfunctional and non-descript ministry into one of national significance that reached into every province of the country, overseeing an annual budget of nearly 500 million dollars at the end of his four-year tenure.

Ercan Murat, Country Director for UNDP in Afghanistan described Atmar in 2004 as a human development champion.[11] As head of a ministry that was considered a key consumer of international funds, his task entailed providing food security for the rural population, safe drinking water, alternatives for the drug-economy and building the necessary infrastructure for the economy in rural areas to develop.[12]

Minister of Education

In May 2006, Atmar was sworn in as the Minister of Education after being approved by an overwhelming majority of the National Assembly. As one of the very few who has served in successive cabinets under President Karzai, he went equipped with valuable institutional experience and memory to take on challenge of making available one of the most basic rights denied to a generation of Afghans—education.

Atmar with Afghan well-known poet, author-writer and Director of the ECAR Massoud Nawabi at the Education Ministry of Afghanistan in Kabul

As a member of the Presidential Oversight Committee, Atmar provides valuable advice and input into the development of the Afghanistan National Development Strategy and the represents government on the Joint Monitoring and Coordination Board that tracks the implementation of the Afghanistan Compact.

Minister of Interior
Atmar with U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and U.S. Navy admiral Michael Mullen at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

In October 2008, Atmar was sworn in as the Minister of Interior after being approved by a majority of the National Assembly.[13]

Minister of Foreign Affaris

On November 21, 2020, Atmar was sworn in as the Minister of Foreign Affairs after being approved by a majority of the National Assembly.

Later career

When the Truth and Justice party was founded in 2011, he became a member of the party.

Works
  • Development of Non-Governmental Organisations in Developing Countries
  • From rhetoric to reality: The role of aid in local peacebuilding in Afghanistan. York: University of York. 1998. (with Arne Strand and Sultan Barakat)
  • Humanitarian Aid, War and Peace in Afghanistan: What to Learn?
  • Politics and Humanitarian Aid in Afghanistan and its Aftermath for the People of Afghanistan
  • Afghanistan or a Stray War in Afghanistan.
  • The Challenge of Winning the Peace, chapter written together with Jonathan Goodhand. published in: Searching for Peace in Central and South Asia, 2002

References
  1. "Haneef Atmar Appointed as Acting Foreign Minister". TOLOnews. 4 April 2020. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
  2. "Chakhansuri Officially Takes Charge as Acting FM". TOLOnews. 23 January 2020. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
  3. "Minister of Education Makes First Trip to the U.S. for Global Literacy Conference". USAID. 18 September 2006. Archived from the original on 27 May 2010. Retrieved 23 March 2009.
  4. "Ministers of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan: Mohammad Hanif Atmar". Embassy of Afghanistan, Washington, DC. Archived from the original on 3 July 2009. Retrieved 23 March 2009.
  5. Burns, John F. (11 October 2008). "Afghan President, Pressured, Reshuffles Cabinet". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 March 2009.
  6. "Afghan officials resign over attack". 6 June 2010. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
  7. "Afghan interior, intel chiefs replaced over attack"
  8. "Afghanistan's Most Powerful Person Announces Bid for April Presidential Elections". The Diplomat. 28 November 2018. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
  9. "Haneef Atmar appointed acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan". uniindia.com. 4 April 2020. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
  10. Andrew, Christopher M.; Mitrokhin, Vasili (2005). The World Was Going Our War: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World. Basic Books. p. 408. ISBN 978-0-465-00311-2.
  11. Murat, Ercan. "NAtional human Development Report 2004" (PDF). UNDP. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
  12. "Interview with rural development minister". IRIN. 4 July 2005. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
  13. "Minister of Interior". Embassy of Afghanistan. Archived from the original on 3 July 2009. Retrieved 23 December 2011.
Political offices
Preceded by
Zarar Ahmad Moqbel		 Afghan Interior Minister
11 October 2008 – 6 June 2010		 Succeeded by
Bismillah Khan Mohammadi
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