Early Years and Personal Life
Khan was illiterate. During the war against the Soviets he served as a commander in the Jamiat-e Islami political party of Afghanistan led by Burhanuddin Rabani in Uruzgan. He later joined Jabha-i-Nijat Milli or National Salvation Front, another jihadi movement led by Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, and remained with the group until the victory of the mujaheddin. He lost an eye during the fighting and in later years gave differing accounts of how he sustained the injury. He was Oruzgan's governor for nearly four years under President Burhanuddin Rabani. Khan quit his job during the Taliban era and spent three years in a Kandahar jail on charges of working for former King Zahir Shah.
Khan was a close friend of Karzai's father, Abdul Ahad Karzai and was believed to mediate disputes among the Karzai brothers.
In early 2002, Karzai appointed Khan as Oruzgan's governor, a position he held until March 2006. Khan was widely seen as incompetent, corrupt, closely tied to the opium poppy trade, and inclined to favor his own Populzai tribe at the expense of Oruzgan's other tribes. Thus no western governments objected when President Karzai replaced Khan as governor, giving him a nominal job in the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. In fact, Khan continued to meddle in Oruzgan's political affairs, often acting through his nephew, Matioolah Khan, a powerful and feared militia leader in the province.
Khan had four wives, from whom he had a total of 18 daughters and 16 sons, the oldest of whom was born about 1981. A fifth wife died under mysterious circumstances amid rumors that Khan had her killed.
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