Deleted:Pir Sayed Ishaq Gailani
Pir Sayed Ishaq Gailani (born 1954) represents Paktika in the Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of Afghanistan's national assembly.[1] He is the founder and chairman of the National Solidarity Movement of Afghanistan and currently serves on the Wolesi Jirga's International Relations committee. While still an influential member of the Gailani family, he has claimed leadership of the family and adopted the title Pir. However, most of his family recognizes his uncle, Ahmad Gailani, as the leader of the family and the Qadiriyya Sufi order. The resulting dispute has created a feud between the two men.[2]
Ishaq Gailani was born in 1954 in Shahr-e Naw, Kabul. He attended Masod-e Sad School for his primary and secondary education and later went to Nadiria High School.[3] After the Soviet invasion in 1979, he fled to Pakistan to rally support to fight the invasion. During the war, he fought alongside his uncle, Pir Ahmad Gailani, and Sibghatullah Mujadidi in the National Islamic Front (Mahaz-e Milli-ye Islami-ye Afghanistan). He would again return to exile in Pakistan when the Taliban seized power nearly 25 years later.
In 2002, he established the National Solidarity Movement of Afghanistan and ran as its presidential candidate in the 2004 Afghan Presidential Elections. He won 16,000 votes in Paktika, second only to Hamid Karzai. In the 2005 Parliamentary Elections, he won 13 percent of the vote - the most of all candidates. He remains an important figure for many Sufis and Khogiani tribesmen in Pakitka, despite having never lived there himself.
References
- ↑ IDS International (2010). Paktika Provincial Handbook: A Guide to the People and the Province. Southeastern Region Series. IDS International.
- ↑ About Sayed Ishaq Gailani (Founder of NSMA)
