Zahir Qadeer

Haji Abdul Zahir Qadeer is an Afghan politician and former member of the National Assembly. He was previously a General in Afghanistan's Border Guard, serving as 8th Border Battalion Commander, Takhar Province. In 2010 he was elected to the House of the People as the member for Nangarhar, and was elected First Deputy Speaker in 2012.

He was born to a Pashtun family that has long-standing ties with Mohammed Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan. He graduated from a high school in Saudi Arabia and studied law in Pakistan.

Zahir Qadeer and two other anti-Taliban leaders were freed from a Taliban prison in 1999 by Abdul-Razzaq Hekmati and Hekmatullah Hekmati, two former Mujahids who had served with the Taliban when they became disillusioned. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks.

On 10 July 2026, Zahir Qadeer was charged in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York for allegedly trafficking drugs in South Africa and Kenya, and supposedly attempting to smuggle weapons to DEA informants in 2025.