Bios of Other Presidential Candidates
Borhanuddin Rabbani
Although the Leader and co-founder of the Jamiat-e-Islami Afghanistan (Islamic Society of Afghanistan) has not yet officially declared himself as a candidate, the probability is high based on his various declarations on the subject.
Born in Yaftal, Badakhshan, Rabbani has received a degree in Islamic studies from the University of Al-Azhar. During the Republican regime of President Daoud (1973-1978), along other Islamists, Rabbani fled to Pakistan where they received the backing of Zulfiqar-Ali Bhutto’s Government.
During the war against Soviet-backed communist regime (1978-1992), Rabbani’s party sided with three other Islamist parties in a coalition known as the “Alliance of Four”. In the very early eighties, when all seven groups based in Peshawar joined in an alliance with a chairmanship by turn, Rabbani performed several times es qualité. Rabbani’s party was the second largest recipient of US and Saudi aid channeled through Pakistan’s ISI.
In the 1989 Afghan Interim Government led by Mujaddedi, Rabbani worked the portfolio of Reconstruction Minister.
From July 1992 through September 1996, Rabbani relied on his strong man Defense Minister Ahmad Shah Massoud to hang on to power in Kabul. His forced tenure threw the country into anarchy and a disastrous civil war, leading up to the entry in scene of the Taliban.
Between 1996 and 2001, Borhanuddin Rabbani headed an “itinerant” government, moving the seat of the State from Faizabad to Mazar or Dushanbe, Tajikistan, depending on the military situation on the ground.
In 2001, Rabbani had some hope to be restored in Kabul after the US blitzkrieg against the Taliban in which his party took part as the major component of the Northern Alliance. But his hopes were disappointed during the negotiations in Bonn where some prominent members of his own party, such as Yunos Qanuni, and US envoy Khalilzad pressured him to renounce to his ambitions at this time and bow to the US decision to anoint Hamed Karzai. Since then, Rabbani has felt that he has been cheated and has in mind to recoup his presidential job.