KABUL (PAN): Following are the biographies of 10 of the 16 ministers-designate introduced to the Wolesi Jirga for approval by Vice-President Karim Khalili on Saturday: 1. Minister-designate of Counter-Narcotics: Zarar Ahmad Moqbel was born in 1966 in Parwan central province. He studied at the Habibia High School before doing graduation from the Pedagogy Institute in his native province. He joined the Jihad against the USSR in 1988 and was in charge of construction of Shura-i-Nazar in northern Takhar province. From 1992 to 2003, Moqbel worked as Kabul police chief and secretary at Afghanistan's Embassy in Tehran. Moqbel served as deputy interior minister under President Karzai from 2004 to 2006 and then briefly served as interior minister. He can speak Dari, Pashto and English. 2. Minister-designate of Foreign Affairs: Dr. Zalmay Rasul is son of Prof. Abdul Qayyum Rasul. Born in 1944 in Kabul, he received primary and secondary education at the Estiqlal High School and received Doctorate in Medical from Paris, France. He worked as a doctor at the Research Institute of Cardiac Diseases in Paris, in charge of the Paris-based Haqiqat-i-Afghan Publication regarding Jihad, doctor at the Military Hospital of Saudi Arabia, Chief of the staff of Father of the Nation Mohammad Zahir in Rome, Minister of Civil Aviation and Tourism during the interim government and National Security Advisor to President Karzai. Zalmay Rasul can speak Pashtu, Dari, English, French, Italian and Arabic languages and has published 30 medical books in the US and Europe. 3. Minister of Labour & Manpower/Martyrs & Disabled Affairs: Amina Safi Afzali is daughter of Amanullah Natqi. She was born in 1967 in western Herat City. She received her early education in Kabul, Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif. She subsequently got admission to the Kabul University, where she did B.Sc from the Faculty of Sciences. For 23 years, she has been advocating women and human rights. She has also taught at the Faculty of Science, Kabul University. After the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, Afzali fled to Iran. Her husband, part of the resistance movement, was killed by the Russians. 4. Minister of Women's Affairs: Palwasha Hasan was born in 1969 in Khak-i-Jabar district of Kabul province. After early completion from the Rabia Balkhi High School in Kabul, she obtained a BSc in the Science Programme from a government-run college in Islamabad, Pakistan. She has a Masters in Post-war Recovery Study from York University, UK. She is the founder of the Afghan Womens Education Centre, a well-established organisation, and a co-founder of the Afghan Womens Network. Currently a Jennings Randolph Afghanistan Fellow at the US Institute of Peace, she served as first Afghan woman head of an international organisation as Country Director for Rights and Democracy in Afghanistan. She has over 15 years of experience in development and womens rights empowerment in Afghanistan and Pakistan. She served as a representative for civil society organizations in numerous constitutional and peacekeeping negotiations, including the Constitutional Loya Jirga (2004), the Peace Jirga on Afghanistan and Pakistan (2007) and the Afghanistan Reconstruction Forum in Tokyo (2002). She speaks Pashto, Dari, Urdu and English fluently. 5. Minister of Economy: Abdul Hadi Arghandiwal, son of Abdul Jalil Arghandiwal, was born in 1952 in Kabul. He graduated from Ghazi High School in Kabul and did BA in Economics in 1976. Arghandiwal was appointed as manager at the Planning Ministry in 1977. He migrated to Pakistan after the civil war broke out, briefly served as finance minister in pre-Taliban Afghanistan. When elected as chairman of Islamic Party in 2008, Arghandiwal announced his party would work to bring security to the country by negotiating with all armed opposition groups. A representative of Mujahideen government in Islamabad, Arghandiwal later went to the US for higher education, but came back to Afghanistan. He was advisor to the president on tribal affairs and head of Hezb-i-Islami before his nomination for cabinet slot. With knowledge of Arabic and Urdu, h can speak Dari, Pashto and English. 6. Minister of Higher Education: Dr. Muhammad Hashim Esmat Elahi, son of Faqirullah, was born in 1955 in Kabul. He received early education at the Naderia High School in 1975 and graduated from the Literature Department of Kabul University in1979. He obtained a Masters degree from Tabatabai University in Tehran and did MA in Journalism. He has been a lecturer at the Journalism Department of Kabul University since 2004. He also has been responsible for appointments to high government posts for the last two years as a member on the presidential consultation board. He also heads the Union of Afghan Journalists. He can speak Dari, Pashto and English 7. Minister of Refugee Affairs: Eng. Abdul Rahim, son of Syed Jan, was born in 1952 in Darwaz district of northeastern Badakhshan province. He completed his education at a local technique institute and did BA from the Polytechnic University in Kabul. He worked as an engineer at the Ministry of Water and Energy for four years before migrating to Peshawar. Rahim served as a representative of Jamiat-i-Islami for 10 years in China, Washington, Mashhad and Islamabad. He also worked as Afghanistan's ambassador to Indonesia. Before being chosen for the cabinet position, he worked as advisor to the Ministry of Telecommunication and Technology. He can fluently speak Dari, Pashto and English 8. Minister of Border and Tribal Affairs: Arsala Jamal, son of Darozi Khan, born in 1966 in the Yousufkhel district of Paktika province. He graduated from the Sayed Jamaluddin High School in Peshawar in 1983. He obtained a BS in Economics from the University of Malaya in 1992and worked from Peshawar for Nebraska University for three years. A governor of Khost from 2006 to 2008, he was an active member of President Hamid Karzai's election campaign team. He can speak Pashto, Dari and English. Arsala has experience in rural development, in both the NGO and government sector. He previously served as Chief Programme Coordinator for Water and Sanitation at the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development. His work experience includes several jobs in the NGO community, such as CARE International. 9. Minister of Urban Development: Born in Kabul, Sultan Hussein Hesari studied there and graduated at the level of BS in architecture in 1980. In 1995, he did MA in architecture from the Iran National University. At the same varsity, he started his Ph.D. programme in 1998. As a consequence of conflicts and political changes, he was resettled in Denmark in 1999. He resumed his Ph.D. programme at Aalborg University, Department of Architecture & Design (2004-6). A member of the Association of Academic Architects (AA) and Federation of Danish Architects, he has worked on a string of projects in Iran and Afghanistan besides serving as a lecturer in the neighbouring country. A prolific writer, he has contributed several articles to foreign publications. 10. Public Health Minister: Suraya Dalil has a master's degree in public health from Harvard. Despite civil war, she remained in Afghanistan for much of the 1990s and graduated from the Kabul Medical Institute in 1992. Soon after the Taliban government emerged, she shifted to neighbouring Pakistan along with her family. She frequently visited her homeland to train midwives and doctors before returning to Kabul in 2002. Dalil has also worked for MSF and UNICEF in Kabul and Somalia. mnm/mud