Political Career After Kandahar
In 2004, Sherzai was appointed Governor of Nangarhar Province, after a spell as "Special Advisor" to Hamid Karzai. Sherzai was removed as Kandahar Governor after criticisms of his warlord-style leadership, poor human rights record and suspected involvement in opium trafficking in the province. However, Sherzai is an important political ally of Karzai, and looks to play a role in Afghan politics for some time to come.
In July 2006, Sherzai narrowly escaped an assassination attempt at a funeral outside Jalalabad. The attempt killed five police officers and wounded several more people, including some children. He opened the newly built highway connecting Jalalabad city with Torkham, which is the border town between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan's prime minister Shaukat Aziz were also present there during the inauguration. Taliban forces took credit for the attack.
In January 2009 an article by Ahmad Majidyar of the American Enterprise Institute included Sherzai on a list of fifteen possible candidates in the 2009 Afghan Presidential election. He announced on 2 May 2009 that he would not be a candidate. Nevertheless his name was on the August 20, 2009 ballot, and preliminary results placed him 17th in a field of 38.
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or career:
“America is a nation with no truly national city, no Paris, no Rome, no London, no city which is at once the social center, the political capital, and the financial hub.”
—C. Wright Mills (1916–1962)
“My ambition in life: to become successful enough to resume my career as a neurasthenic.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)