Born on Sept 13, 1952 in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, Mohammad Daud Sultanzoy is an alumnus of Kabul University. Later, he also won a government scholarship to the United States for pursuing further studies in aviation.

Sultanzoy was a strong opponent of the Soviet regime in Afghanistan in the 1980s and facilitated the escape of many of his countrymen to Germany. He went back to the United States after suffering a war injury and landed a job as a pilot for the United Airlines. All the while, however, he continued to campaign for the Afghan cause.

Following 9/11, Sultanzoy left America and returned to Afghanistan to partake in the new change the country was going through. He was an elected member of the emergency Loya Jirga (grand council) convened in Kabul in 2002.

During the 2005 election, he was elected as the MP of Ghazni province and held the posts of Chairman of the Committee for National Economy, Rural Development, Agriculture and NGOs. He acquired a reputation for being a reformer and a technocrat.

Sultanzoy hosted numerous talk shows on television. At present, he is one of the country’s foremost analysts on both foreign and internal affairs.

— Research and text by Fatema Imani