Mohammed Daoud Khan

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Mohammed Daoud Khan bigraphy, stories - President of Afghanistan

Mohammed Daoud Khan : biography

July 18, 1908 – April 28, 1978

Sardar Mohammed Daoud Khan or Daud Khan (July 18, 1909 – April 28, 1978) was Prime Minister of Afghanistan from 1953 to 1963, and later became the President of Afghanistan. He overthrew the monarchy of his first cousin Mohammed Zahir Shah and declared himself as the first President of Afghanistan from 1973 until his assassination in 1978 as a result of the Saur Revolution led by the Communist People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). Daoud Khan was known for his progressive policies, especially in relation to the rights of women and for initiating two five-year modernization plans which increased the labor force by about 50 percent. However, he was also criticized for heavy repression of dissent, and for promoting nepotism. http://gwkhan.20m.com/HISToRY.htm

Early life

HRH Prince Mohammed Daoud (also spelled Daud) was born in Kabul, the eldest son of the diplomat HRH Prince Mohammed Aziz Khan (1877–1933) (an older half-brother of King Mohammed Nadir Shah). He lost his father to an assassination in Berlin in 1933, while his father was serving as the Afghan Ambassador to Germany. He and his brother Naim Khan (1911–78) then came under the tutelage of their uncle HRH Prince Hashim Khan (1884–1953). Daoud proved to be an apt student of politics. Educated in France, he served as the Governor of the Eastern Province from 1934–35 and in 1938–39, and was Governor of Kandahar from 1935–38.

In 1939, Daoud was promoted to Lieutenant-General and commander of the important Kabul Army Corps until 1946. From 1946 to 1948, he served as Minister of Defense, then Minister of the Interior from 1949 to 1951. In 1948, he served as Ambassador to France. In 1951, he was promoted to General and served in that capacity as Commander of the Central Forces in Kabul from 1951 to 1953.

Royal Prime Minister

Daoud was appointed Prime Minister in September 1953 in an intra-family transfer of power that involved no violence. His ten-year tenure was noted for his foreign policy turn to the Soviet Union, the completion of the Helmand Valley project, which radically improved living conditions in southwestern Afghanistan, and tentative steps towards the emancipation of women.

Daoud supported a nationalistic and one-sided reunification of the Pashtun people with Afghanistan, but this would have involved taking a considerable amount of territory from the new nation of Pakistan and was in direct antagonism to an older plan of the 1950s whereby a confederation between the two countries was proposed. The move further worried the non-Pashtun populations of Afghanistan such as the minority Tajik and Uzbek who suspected Daoud Khan’s intention was to increase the Pashtun’s disproportionate hold on political power. During that time, the Pashtuns (or Afghans) represented over 80 percent of the government and held all important ministries, such as the Ministries of the Interior, Foreign Affairs, Economic Affairs, Defense and even most of the banks.

With the creation of an independent Pakistan in 1947, the Durand line conflict with the British colonialists was inherited by the two countries.

In 1961, as a result of Daoud’s antagonistic policies and support to militias in areas along the Durand Line, Pakistan closed its borders with Afghanistan causing an economic crisis and greater dependence on the USSR. The USSR became Afghanistan’s principal trading partner. Within a few months, the USSR had sent jet airplanes, tanks, heavy and light artillery for a heavily discounted price tag of $25 million.

In 1962, Daoud sent troops across the international border into the Bajaur region of Pakistan in an attempt to manipulate events in that area and to press the Pashtunistan issue, but the Afghan military forces were routed by Pakistani military. During this period, the propaganda war from Afghanistan, carried on by radio, was relentless.

The crisis was finally resolved with the forced resignation of Daoud Khan in March 1963 and the re-opening of the border in May. Pakistan has continued to remain suspicious of Afghan intentions and Daoud’s policy has left a negative impression in the eyes of many Tajik tribesmen who felt they were being disenfranchised for the sake of Pashtun Nationalism.