Ghulam Farooq Wardak | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Minister of Education | |
| In office 11 October 2008 – April 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Mohammad Hanif Atmar |
| Succeeded by | Assadullah Hanif Balkhi |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1959 Wardak Province,Afghanistan |
| Political party | Hezbi Islami |
| Alma mater | Preston University |
Ghulam Farooq Wardak (born 1959) is apolitician inAfghanistan, formerly serving as theMinister of Education. He was appointed to that position byAfghan PresidentHamid Karzai on October 11, 2008.[1] On June 2022, Farooq Wardak was returned to Afghanistan after temporary self-exile following theTaliban takeover of the country in August 2021.[2]
Farooq Wardak was born in theSaydabad Wardak District, in theWardak Province ofAfghanistan. He is an ethnicPashtun from the Wardak tribe, who is fluent inPashto,Persian,English andUrdu.[3] His primary education was from a government elementary school in Wardak Province. He completed his high school inKabul City. With the collapse of PresidentDaud Khan's regime, Wardak joined the jihad against theDemocratic Republic of Afghanistan withHezb-e Islami ofGulbuddin Hekmatyar.
After the end of thefirst Taliban regime in late 2001, Farooq Wardak has continued to support Hezb-e Islami followers by appointing them to interesting administrative positions.
After Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Wardak stopped his studies in the faculty of Pharmacy of Kabul University and took refuge inPakistan with theAfghan refugees. In 1982, he was admitted to theFaculty of Pharmacy inPunjab University, and graduated with a degree in 1986.[4] While working with the United Nations from 1996 to 2001 in Pakistan, he received a master's degree in Administration fromPreston University, inPeshawar, Pakistan. He received an honorary doctorate fromKIIT University in 2012, other recipients at the ceremony were eminent economist,Baidyanath Misra, andJigme Thinley, the thenPrime Minister of Bhutan.[5]