Afghan Biographies

Katawazi, Mohammad Mirza Haji


Name Katawazi, Mohammad Mirza Haji
Ethnic backgr. Pashtun
Date of birth
Function/Grade President Kabul moneychangers union
History and Biodata

2. Previous Functions:
Head Hijran Hijrat Business Company (20180928)
Wolesi Jirga Member 2018 MP MNA Paktika
Wolesi Jirga Deputy Speaker (20200310, 20210310)
President Kabul moneychanger union (20221026)
3. Biodata:
Haji Mohammad Mirza Katawazi Mohammad Mirza Katawazai Mirza Khan Katawazai a Wolesi Jirga candidate (2018) from Paktika province, has been punished by the primary court of first Police District in capital Kabul, over committing fraud in making of armored vehicles registration plates. Katawazai, who is the head of Hijran Hijrat Business Company often summoned by the court but he never bothered to appear before the judge and the court finally announced the decision in his absence in October 2015. Muhammad Mirza, the richest candidate from Yahyakhel district, sponsored a cricket tournament in Sharana city before the election where the winning team received a car.

Muhammad Mirza Katawazai is a rich businessman living in Kabul who is originally from one of Paktika’s more peaceful districts, Yahyakhel. He claims to be the fifth-richest man in the country. According to his campaigners, Mirza registered 500 million US dollars as his net assets at the Independent Election Commission (IEC). Though his claim of being the fifth-richest man in the country can be questioned, he may well be the richest in his province.(20181114)

 

Earlier, Katawazai was arrested by the National Directorate of Security (NDS) but he managed to secure his release on bail in line with the orders from the Attorney General Office (AGO) and his case was made part of the regular court hearings.
 

Habibullah son of Mohammad Nader, in charge of the Afghan Khalej Tourism Company, who released Katawazai on bail failed to bring back the accused thus the court decided to keep Habibullah under watch as well.
 

Documents explained that the accused failed to appear before the NDS criminal court for the solution of the case against him. According to another source, Mirza Katawazi has been involved in falsification of registration plates of 75 armored vehicles but was released by bail offered by Habibullah, head of the Afghan Khalej Tourism Company.

 

According to a source, the case of Katawazai was still pending at the NDS, but he still did not appear before the court.
 

Ali Raza Rohani, spokesman for the Independent Election Complaint Commission (IECC) refuse to comment over Katawazai’s case but stressed the election body decisions based on the election and complaint laws and behaviors.
 

He said if more documents received by the IEC which could suggest that a particular candidate could not meet the criteria the commission would disqualify him.
 

Matiullah Mashraqiwal, lawyer of the Hijran Hijrat Company said the head of this company is Haji Humayon Humayon and the company has nothing to do with this case.
 

Akbar Raheel, speaking on the behalf of Haji Mirza, said: “The case belonged to the Hijrat Hijran Company and nothing to do with us.” “Our political rivals are worried and tried to level wrong allegations on us to weaken us politically,” he noted. He claimed if Haji Mohammad Mirza Katawazai has been mentioned in this report they would claim for defamation. Mohammad Merza Katawazai received 6,027 votes in Wolesi Jirga election 2018 (most votes ) and got a seat in WJ 2018.

AGO had declared Mirza Khan Katawazai with no criminal background. Later, the Attorney General’s Office in a letter reveals that it has made a mistake while assessing candidates with criminal convictions and that Katawazai is being sentenced to five years in prison. Another document affiliated to AGO indicates that Katawazai was sentenced to prison by court in 2016. But three years later, during parliamentary elections in October 2018, he was arrested by intelligence operatives at Hairatan port in northern Balkh province. However, according to a document, days later President Ghani instead of implementing the court’s verdict on Katawazai has verbally ordered the Attorney General’s Office to free him. Thereafter, Katawazai has not served his five years in prison, and he is currently free and on top of the list of voting for Paktia province.(20190324)

Katawazai was elected as deputy speaker with 129 votes.(20200310)

Several packages containing tens of kilograms of gold were detected and confiscated by Tajikistan police on the border point. The packages belonged to Mirza Katawazi, deputy parliament speaker and were worth millions of dollars.(20210227)

Mohammad Mirza Katawazai, who found himself at the center of a scandal in Tajikistan involving US$15 million in cash and some 90 kilograms of gold bars seized from smugglers at the Dushanbe airport in November last year, was relieved of his post of  Vice-Speaker of the Wolosi Jirga (Afghanistan’s lower house of parliament). 


Muhammad Mirza Katawazai speaks Pashtu and English.

Last Modified 2022-10-27
Established 2018-09-28