Mohammad Hasan Sharq ( ps, محمد حسن شرق, born 17 July 1925)Profile of Mohammad Hasan Sharq
/ref> is an Afghan former politician who was active in the

communist government A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...

of Afghanistan. Sharq became

Chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

of the

Council of Ministers A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...

– the government of the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

-backed Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. He was selected as a compromise candidate after a ''loya'' jirga ratified a new constitution in 1987. However, the power of his office was relatively slight compared with the powers held by the Presidency.

Career

Sharq served as spokesman for earlier

of the

Mohammad Daoud Khan Mohammed Daoud Khan ( ps, ), also romanized as Daud Khan or Dawood Khan (18 July 1909 – 28 April 1978), was an Afghan politician and general who served as prime minister of Afghanistan from 1953 to 1963 and, as leader of the 1973 Afghan coup ...

during the

Kingdom of Afghanistan The Kingdom of Afghanistan ( ps, , Dǝ Afġānistān wākmanān; prs, پادشاهی افغانستان, Pādešāhī-ye Afġānistān) was a constitutional monarchy in Central Asia established in 1926 as a successor state to the Emirate of A ...

. When Daoud took over the Cabinet Posts of Prime Minister, Defense Minister and Foreign Minister, He appointed Sharq as his Deputy Prime Minister. He was Daoud's

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

from 1975 to about 1976. In March 1986 Afghan foreign minister Abdul Wakil invited mujahideen leaders, former King

Zahir Shah Mohammed Zahir Shah (Pashto/Dari: , 15 October 1914 – 23 July 2007) was the last king of Afghanistan, reigning from 8 November 1933 until he was deposed on 17 July 1973. Serving for 40 years, Zahir was the longest-serving ruler of Afghanistan s ...

and ex-ministers from previous governments to join a government of national unity. The new parliament that convened on May 30, 1989, two weeks after the Geneva Accords became effective and the beginning of the Soviet troop withdrawal in 1989, consisted of 184 lower house deputies and 115 senators; 62 house and 82 senate seats were left vacant for the resistance "opposition." As a compromise candidate, Sharq was selected by President

Mohammad Najibullah Mohammad Najibullah Ahmadzai (Pashto/ prs, محمد نجیب‌الله احمدزی, ; 6 August 1947 – 27 September 1996), commonly known as Dr. Najib, was an Afghan politician who served as the General Secretary of the People's Democratic Par ...

to be the new

of the

, replacing

Sultan Ali Keshtmand Sultan Ali Keshtmand ( fa, سلطان‌علی کشتمند; born May 22, 1935, in Kabul), sometimes transliterated Kishtmand, was an Afghan politician. He served twice as Chairman of the Council of Ministers during the 1980s, from 1981 to 1988 a ...

. The appointment was intended dramatically to reinforce the point that the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) was going to take a back seat. The new constitution, however, vested key powers in the Presidency and Najibullah did not give up that central role. Sharq had served as the regime's Deputy Chairman of the

since June 1987 and before that as its Ambassador to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Sharq's association with the

Parcham Parcham (Pashto and prs, پرچم, ) was the name of one of the factions of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, formed in 1967 following its split and led for most of its history by Babrak Karmal and Mohammed Najibullah. The basic ...

faction, dating back to the Daoud government, made the "non-PDPA" appellation meaningless. Likewise, on June 7, when Sharq announced his cabinet, consisting of 11 new members and 10 former ones, the non-party credentials of the "new" ministers were undermined by the fact that most had served the regime government previously in other capacities. Furthermore, the powerful ministries of interior, state security, and foreign affairs remained in PDPA hands. The major exception was the effort to enlist a resistance commander or a respected retired general from an earlier era to become minister of defense. This post remained open for some time, but in August it was finally given to Army Chief of Staff General

Shahnawaz Tanai Lieutenant General Shahnawaz Tanai ( Russian: Шахнаваз Танай, 1950 – 7 March 2022) was an Afghan politician and general officer who served as the Chief of General Staff of the Afghan National Army until his defection to neighbo ...

of the

Khalq Khalq ( ps, خلق, ) was a faction of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). Its historical ''de facto'' leaders were Nur Muhammad Taraki (1967–1979), Hafizullah Amin (1979) and Sayed Mohammad Gulabzoy (1979–1990). It was als ...

faction. Thus, almost two years after he announced the national reconciliation policy in January 1987, Najibullah was unable to attract a single major figure of the resistance or prominent Afghan refugee to join the government. During 1988 two new provinces were created - Sar-e Pol in the north and

Nuristan Nuristan, also spelled as Nurestan or Nooristan (Dari: ; Kamkata-vari: ), is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. It is divided into seven districts and is Afghanistan's least populous province, wi ...

in the northeast - by carving out territory from adjoining provinces. In each case, the purpose appears to have been to create a new entity where an ethnic minority, the Hazaras and Nuristanis respectively, would dominate. This readjustment would guarantee representation in the new parliament for these ethnic groups. At the same time, the Sharq government abolished the special ministry for nationalities that carried connotations of a Soviet-style system. In February 1989 Sharq resigned from the government of Najibullah, a move underscoring the failure by Afghans to establish a government of national reconciliation. A resident of the Anar Dara district in the western Farah province, Sharq was prime minister in the Najibullah government from 1986 to 1990. He also served as spokesman for then prime minister Daud Khan and his Milli Ghurzang Party.

Cabinet

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharq, Mohammad Hasan 1925 births Living people Ambassadors of Afghanistan to India Finance Ministers of Afghanistan Prime Ministers of Afghanistan Communist rulers of Afghanistan Afghan Tajik people