Nur ul-Haq Ulumi

Nur ul-Haq Ulumi (born 15 August 1941) is an Afghan politician, who served as Minister of Interior from 2015 to 2016, and as a Member of the House of the People from 2005 to 2010 representing Kandahar. He founded and previously led the National United Party of Afghanistan, a small left-wing and secular party in Afghanistan that is a member of the National Coalition of Afghanistan. Ulumi previously served in the Afghan Army as a member of the Parcham faction of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan

Military career Ulumi graduated from the University of Kabul magna cum laude in 1966.

Ulumi was trained in both the United States and the Soviet Union.

Afghan Civil War Ulumi saw action at the Battle of Jalalabad, where he played an important role in defeating the mujahideen offensive. Following his success at Jalalabad he was given a new position as Governor of Kandahar.

Governor of Kandahar In his new role as governor, Ulumi enacted a number of major changes to regional government policy in order to help implement the Afghan Government's National Reconciliation. Firstly, he persuaded President Najibullah to withdraw Abdul Rashid Dostum's hated Jouzjani militia from Kandahar, he stopped forced conscription into the Army, he encouraged local unemployed youth to join his local paid militia to help defend Kandahar, he complied with prisoner release requests from moderate mujihadeen commanders, and he didn't interfere with the mujihadeen-run narcotics smuggling trade.

Kandahar underwent a complete sociopolitical collapse in the early 1990s, driven in part by the divide and rule tactics of Nur ul-Haq Ulumi, who manipulated rival mujahideen factions against each other.

Political career Ulumi was elected as an MP for Kandahar Province in 2005, with 13,035 out of a total of 178,269 votes. The only candidate to receive a higher number of votes was Qayum Karzai, the elder brother of President Hamid Karzai, who received 14,243 votes. In 2010 Ulumi failed to be re-elected, failing to receive even 3,000 out of a total of 85,385 votes. There were also accusations of electoral fraud and vote rigging.

During his term as an MP Ulumi chaired the Afghan Parliament's Defence Committee.

He was nominated to be Minister of Interior by Abdullah Abdullah in the unity government of Ashraf Ghani in January 2015. He had supported Abdullah Abdullah in the 2014 Afghan presidential election. However, a ban was imposed by the Parliament on cabinet minister appointments with dual citizenship. After giving up his dual citizenship Ulumi was nominated again. He was confirmed as Interior Minister on 27 January 2015. He left the post in February 2016, reportedly resigning due to differences with other officials, assuming the role of Ambassador to the Netherlands.

He unsuccessfully ran as a candidate in the 2019 Afghan presidential election as leader of the newly formed Afghanistan People's National Front (Jabha-e-Milli Mardum-e-Afghanistan). He repeatedly raised concerns about vote-rigging. He has since been appointed Special Representative for Good Governance.

Ulumi has blamed the rise in Taliban activity in southern Afghanistan on the failure of the Afghan government to build a fair government, free from corruption.

Personal life Ulumi's elder brother was a powerful general in President Najibullah's government and was assassinated by the mujaheddin. Ulumi speaks English and Russian fluently. Ulumi has two daughters and a son, all of whom live in the Netherlands.