Abdul Latif Pedram

Abdul Latif Pedram (born 29 July 1963) is an Afghan politician who is the leader of the National Congress of Afghanistan (NCP) since 2001. He was one of the nine representatives of Badakhshan province in the lower house of parliament.

He campaigned for women's personal rights in Afghanistan and also served as member of parliament. His hometown fell to the Taliban prior to Kabul. He has since been living in exile.

Early life

Born in Maimay, Badakhshan on 29 July 1963 to a Persian-speaking Tajik and Pamiri family, Latīf Pedrām is a writer, poet, journalist, and professor of Persian literature. with approximately 1.4% of the total ballots counted, and approximately 17% of the ballots in his home province Badakhshan - being the strongest of the small candidates. Following the outcome, he criticized the government and the results, saying that "large-scale fraud had occurred", which was "completely shameful." Prior to the votes, Pedram had argued that the presidential election should be delayed because of insecurity and to arrange for the whole Afghan diaspora to vote.

2008 controversy In February 2008, an alleged audio recording of Pedram was aired by various TV channels in Afghanistan, claiming that Pedram had "disrespected" and "insulted" former King of Afghanistan, Amanullah Khan, who is regarded as a "national hero" by many in the country. However, in an interview on Khorasan TV he denied this claim and said that his voice was tampered with. This led to hot editorial crossfires among the press and in the Parliament and Cabinet, echoing with ethnic conflicts when ethnic blocks were identified supporting and criticizing Pedram. Following this, the government of Afghanistan tried banning the National Congress of Afghanistan and ordered that "comments about former kings, the president and Jihadi leaders are not allowed." Since the incident, Pedram lived under house arrest in Kabul until November 2008. While expressing its concern regarding the regression of democracy in Afghanistan one year before the 2009 presidential elections, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) called for the unconditional release of Abdul Latif Pedram.

2009 Presidential election In January 2009 an article by Aḥmad Madjidyar of the American Enterprise Institute included Pedrām on a list of fifteen possible candidates in the controversial 2009 Afghan Presidential election. Preliminary results placed Pedrām eleventh in a field of 38 candidates and according to the controversial Independent Election Committee (IEC), he ultimately received 0.34% of the votes. According to IEC results, Pedrām received 6,686 votes in his home province of Badakhshan, considerably lower than the 33,510 votes he received during the 2004 presidential election.

2010 Parliamentary election In the 2010 Afghan parliamentary election, Pedram received 8,469 votes in Badakhshan, being the third representative from that province to be elected to the parliament, after Fawzia Koofi and Zalmai Mojadidi.

Views

Latif Pedram is the founder and leader of National Congress of Afghanistan and the founder of the Tajik Council of Afghanistan. Tajiks constituted the main anti-Taliban fighting force in the past, known as Northern Alliance or United Islamic Front for Salvation of Afghanistan. Latif Pedram's political vision is to empower the human rights of minorities like Pashayis, Parachis, Hazaras and other ethnicities and to promote equality, brotherhood among the different ethnicities and possibly even a name change of the country from Afghanistan to a non-tribal name (Khorasan).

Latīf Pedrām is a strong supporter of secularism, federalism and decentralization in Afghanistan. He denounces corruption and strongly opposes Islamic fundamentalism.