Sultan Ali Keshtmand

Sultan Ali Keshtmand

Date of Birth:	1935
Date of Death:
Prime Minister of Afghanistan
Tenure Order:	12th Prime Minister ( 4th Premier of the DRA )
Took Office (1st time):	June 1981 – May 1988
Predecessor:	Babrak Karmal
Successor:	Mohammad Hasan Sharq
Took Office (2nd time):	February 1989 – May 1990
Predecessor:	Mohammad Hasan Sharq
Successor:	Fazal Haq Khaliqyar

Sultan Ali Keshtmand (b. 1935) was a Hazara politician. He served twice as Prime Minister during the 1980s, from 1981 to 1988 and from 1989 to 1990 at the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

A Hazara, occupied the highest ever position from his community in the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan regime that tenuously ruled Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Early years

Keshtmand was born in Kabul. He is a member of the minority Hazara ethnic group. He studied economics at Kabul University and became involved in the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan. He joined the Parcham Faction of that party, which was led by Babrak Karmal.

Role in politics

Immediately after the April 1978 coup in which the People's Democratic Party came to power, forming the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, Keshtmand became minister of planning.

He lost that post in August 1978 when he was arrested for an alleged plot against President Nur Mohammad Taraki, a member of the rival Khalq faction of the party.

The PDPA Politburo ordered the arrest of Keshtmand and Public Works Minister Muhammad Rafi’i for their part in the possible anti-regime conspiracy. He and inmates went through severe torture and long imprisonment.

He remained in prison and was sentenced to death, but this decision was soon revoked and he was resentenced to 15 years in prison.

On December 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, bringing Babrak Karmal and the Parcham faction to power. He was released from jail, and was once again restored in the Politburo.

Friction among the and People's members heightened in 1980 when Karmal removed Assadullah Sarwari, a member of the People's Party, from his position as first deputy prime minister and replaced him with Sultan Ali Keshtmand.

Keshtmand, a Parchami, soon became one of the most important leaders of the regime. In June of 1981, Karmal retained his other offices, but resigned as prime minister and was succeeded by Keshtmand.

A 21-member Supreme Defense Council headed by Mohammad Najibullah effectively assumed power.

The rise in the deficit greatly concerned the government, and as Prime Minister Keshtmand noted in April 1983 that the tax collections were inadequate in view of the increased state spending. The security situation in the country, however, prevented the government from improving its tax collections.

In September, 1987, the Kabul government sponsored a large convocation of Hazaras from various parts of the country and offered them autonomy. In his speech to the group, Keshtmand said that the government was going to set up several new provinces in the Hazarajat that would be administered by the local inhabitants.

Rise to power and the fall

He served as Prime Minister from 1981 to 1988 and 1989 to 1990, and as vice-President from 1990 until 1991, when he was dismissed shortly before the fall of the government.

A mujaheddin radio station reports intra-Parcham (a faction of the PDPA) (P) clashes in Kabul between supporters of Najibullah and Keshtmand, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers.

Non-PDPA member Mohammed Hassan Sharq was selected by President Najibullah to be the new prime minister, replacing Keshtmand. This move was made in order to free spaces in the new government for nonparty candidates.

He then left Afghanistan, first moving to Russia and then to England. There he became an outspoken defender of the rights of Hazaras, claiming that the Pashtun majority in Afghanistan had had too much power in all of Afghanistan's regimes.

Latest

In his recent book "Yaad daashthaaye Syaasi wa Rooyidaadhaaye Taarikhi" (Political Notes and Historical Events)"^{[Publication information needed]}, Keshtmand has given an account of the rise and fall of the era in Afghanistan and his personal auto biography.

He has expressed his visit to Muslim Holy Places of Karbala and Najaf as "memorable and blessed" event in his life.