Afghan Biographies

Qasimi, Enayatullah Enayat Qasemi


Name Qasimi, Enayatullah Enayat Qasemi
Ethnic backgr. Hazara
Date of birth 1979
Function/Grade Ex-Minister
History and Biodata

2. Previous Functions:
Legal and International Affairs Advisor to President Karzai during the transitional period,
Minister of Transport and Aviation

3. Biodata:
qasimi_enayatullahQasimi was born Mar. 04, 1979 in Helmand Province, Afghanistan He is an ethnic Hazara and completed his primary education in Karteh Lagaan School of Lashkargah City in Helmand Province. Before the Soviet invasion and occupation forced his family to flee Afghanistan in the early 1980s, Qasimi was something of an outsider in his homeland. He is a Shia, a minority sect of Islam that has long faced discrimination in that country. With two siblings and both parents - a construction worker and housewife - Qasimi moved to Iran and later Pakistan, a teen-ager with a seventh-grade education and dim prospects for more schooling. . Unable to enroll in school because his family was suffering financially, Qasimi worked in a bakery and then a body shop. He hoped to open a body shop, a lofty goal for a refugee with little education, but had to put those plans on hold after he burned his hand on the job.

Unable to work while the burn healed, he enrolled in an English class. He soon discovered he had a facility for the language, and it wasn't long before he had a job teaching English to fellow refugees. His employer was the International Rescue Committee - an NGO.

Many of those Qasimi taught were educated Afghans who needed English skills to gain admission to American colleges. Since he knew English, Qasimi figured he could follow the same path if he could somehow make up for his lack of formal education. He plowed through books on math, physics and history.  The chaos of refugee life worked in Qasimi's favor.

Because student records were not available from war-torn Afghanistan, a board of college professors was set up in Pakistan to evaluate refugee students' educational credentials. Board members quizzed students on academic subjects and issued letters vouching for their knowledge.

The self-taught Qasimi impressed the board and won a full scholarship for a year at the Lawrenceville School, a New Jersey prep school. He went on to Bard College, earning an undergraduate degree in economics.

Next came law school at the University of Maryland and business school at the University of Baltimore. He enrolled in both at the same time, completing degrees in three years.

1996 Graduated from Lornswel School of New Jersey in the United States. Bachelors in Economics from Bord University in the United States. 2001 Masters in Management and Commerce from the University of Baltimore in the United States. 2001 Juris Doctorate from the law faculty of the University of Maryland, which turned out not to be true. He has definitely no P.H.D.·

With 26 years he was designated  to become Minister of Transport. So his date of birth was changed  from Mar 04, 1979 into Mar. 04, 1969 because - according to the Afghan Constitution - the minimum age of 35 is required to be a Minister.

The young western-educated minister of transport, Enayatullah Qasimi, was fired 2006, because he had been heavy criticised after he was accused of corruption. His case is still under investigation by the Attorney General. He lives now in the USA and is working in a consulting company. Public Prosecution Department says a commission is to be set up to investigate corruption cases attributed to Enayatullah Qasimi and others. (20100315)

Qasimi is working as a partner with Whiteford, Taylor and Preston (USA) with over 150 attorneys. Whiteford, Taylor and Preston is one of Maryland's largest law firms. Based in Baltimore, with offices in Towson and Columbia, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Falls Church, Virginia, and Wilmington, Delaware.

On 20110328 Pajhwok reported Qasimi's arrest in Kabul because of embezzlement during his time as a Minister of Transport. Three days later Qasimi was freed under orders from the country's chief prosecutor, Mohammad Ishaq Aloko (20110331) without releasing further details. Under Afghan law the simple “mismanagement” of government funds is all that’s required to qualify an act as embezzlement, not simply the misappropriation of such. On 20110402 the Attorney General's Office on Saturday said it had released Qasimi on bail after his arrest on corruption charges, but he was banned from travel.

Enayatullah Qasemi is facing prosecution over graft charges and misuse of power, (20141021)

Qasimi holds an US Passport.

 

He speaks Dari and English.

Last Modified 2014-10-21
Established 2009-10-09