Taj Mohammad Wardak

Taj Mohammad Wardak is an Afghan politician, from the Pashtun ethnic group.He spent some of the period of the Taliban's administration in the United States of America, and became an American citizen.cite news
url=http://www.e-ariana.com/ariana/eariana.nsf/allDocs/27B22D9A72343BE387256C04004F91A1?OpenDocument
title=Ending With a Whimper
publisher=Newsweek
date=June 20 2002
author=Babak Dehghanpisheh
accessdate=2007-02-27]

Governor of Paktia

Wardak was appointed Governor of Paktia province in Afghanistan in the winter of 2002.cite news
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1957952.stm
date= April 29 2002
title=Eyewitness: Guarding Gardez
publisher=BBC
accessdate=2007-02-27] He served for only a few months due to opposition from local warlord Pacha Khan Zadran cite web
url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/afghanistan/zadran.htm
title=Pacha Khan Zadran
publisher=Global Security
accessdate=February 27
accessyear=2007] Zadran was one of the principal actors in a violent struggle for control for the province after the fall of the Taliban, and Wardak was appointed as a compromise solution between the competing warlords. Wardak was an Afghan exile living in California as an afghan-american.Fact|date=February 2007 He had previously served as Governor of Laghman province in the 1970s.

Minister of the Interior

According to
Guantanamo captive Hafizullah Shabaz Khail, in testimony before his Combatant Status Review Tribunal Taj Mohammed sic Wardak was the first Governor Hamid Karzai appointed for the Province of Paktia. [http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/csrt/Set_47_3130-3248.pdf#11 Summarized transcripts (.pdf)] , from Hafizullah Shabaz Khail's "Combatant Status Review Tribunal" - pages 11-21] Khail said he was appointed the District Chief of Zormat because the new Governor, Taj Mohammed, trusted him.He said Taj Mohammed Wardak was replaced, as Governor, by Raz Mohammed Dalili when Hamid Karzai asked him to assume a position in Kabul.

According to the "BBC" the "relatively unknown" Wardak was appointed Interior Minister on Wednesday, June 19 2002. cite news
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2052680.stm
date= June 19 2002
title=Karzai sworn in as president
publisher=BBC
accessdate=2007-02-27]

According to "Islam Online" Wardak's appointment raised controversy within the Ministry.cite news
url=http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2002-06/20/article27.shtml
title=Afghanistan’s Qanooni Refuses New Post
date= June 20 2002
publisher=Islam Online
accessdate=2007-02-27] They quote unnamed Ministry officials, and sentry Mohammad Halim::"The interior ministry is on high alert because the people say why Qanooni Saheb has been transferred. He should come back, It is a state of high alert and strike. We do not like Wardak, because we do not know him and we want the return of Qanooni."

Wardak was one of several cabinet ministers Karzai appointed to a high level commission to investigate the assassination of Abdul Qadir, Vice President, and also one of Karzai's leading rivals.cite news
url=http://www.e-ariana.com/ariana/eariana.nsf/allDocsArticles/056BB568396500E787256C04004F92E3?OpenDocument
title=Killing Of Pashtun Minister Qadir Leaves Karzai Vulnerable
publisher=Radio Free Europe
date=July 8 2002
author=Ron Synovitz
accessdate=2007-02-27] Qadir, like Wardak, was a Pashtun. Analysts said Karzai picked cabinet ministers from each of Afghanistan's ethnic groups, so each group would realize he was taking the investigation seriously.The commission included Vice President Mohammad Karim Khalili, Intelligence Services Director
Mohammad Arif Sarwari,
Rural Development Minister Mohammad Hanif Atma, and former Interim
Irrigation Minister Haji Mangal Hussain.

Wardak and Karzai differed in their interpretation of the deaths of students shot during a demonstration.cite news
url=http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav121102a.shtml
title=Promising an Army, Afghan President faces immediate threats
author=Ardeshir Moaveni
date=December 11 2002
publisher=Eurasia.net
accessdate=2007-02-27] Karzai called the first student known to have died a "martyr". Wardak said that student was shot by other students.

Wardak was replaced on January 28 2003, by Ali Ahmad Jalali.cite web
url=http://www.eurasianet.org/resource/afghanistan/hypermail/200301/0108.shtml
publisher=Eurasianet
title=Afghanistan daily digest
author=Abe Rein
date= January 29 2003
accessdate=February 27
accessyear=2007] cite news
date= September 28, 2005
title=Afghanistan: Top Security Official Resigns Amid Controversy
url=http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/09/b8981baf-7ea4-46f7-9e24-7210654300e8.html
publisher=Radio Free Europe
accessdate=2007-02-27]

An article published on the web-site of The Jamestown Foundation on June 23 2004 described Wardak as a "presidential aide".cite web
url=http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=401&issue_id=2996&article_id=2368148
date=June 23 2004
title=The fall of Ghor: An ominous development for Karzai
author=A. Jamali
publisher=The Jamestown Foundation
accessdate=February 27
accessyear=2007]

2004 elections

Wardak was one of the running mates for Presidential candidate Mohammad Yunos Qanuni.cite web
url=http://www.azadiradio.org/en/specials/elections/candidates-qanuni.asp
title=Presidential Candidates: Mohammad Yunos Qanuni
publisher=Afghanistan Votes
accessdate=February 27
accessyear=2007]

National Independence Party of Afghanistan

Taj Mohammad Wardak is listed as the head of the National Independence Party of Afghanistan on the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Ministry of Justice web-page that lists the liscenced political parties.cite web
url=http://www.moj.gov.af/polpartieslist.html
title=Liscenced Political Parties
publisher=Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Ministry of Justice
accessdate=February 27
accessyear=2007] cite web
url=http://www.azadiradio.org/en/specials/elections/parties.asp
title=Political Parties
publisher=Afghanistan Votes
accessdate=February 27
accessyear=2007]

References

###@@@KEY@@@###succession box
before=Pacha Khan Zadran
title=Governor of Paktia Province, Afghanistan
years=2004–2005
after=Raz Mohammed Dalilisuccession box
before=Yunis Qanooni
title=Afghan Interior Minister
years=19 June, 2002 — January 28 2003
after=Ali Ahmad Jalali