50 Facts About Jawed Ludin

Jawed Ludin is a former Deputy Foreign Minister on Political Affairs of Afghanistan.

Jawed Ludin was appointed on 2011, by President Hamid Karzai.

Jawed Ludin was Ambassador of Afghanistan in Canada from 2009 to 2012, and had been spokesperson and later chief of staff to President Karzai.

Jawed Ludin was born on March 16,1973, in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Jawed Ludin completed his primary and secondary education in Kabul.

Jawed Ludin resumed his studies when he went to exile in London, United Kingdom, in 1998, studying politics and sociology.

Jawed Ludin is a candidate for an LLM degree in Public International Law from the University of Oslo.

Since 1994 Ludin has been involved in humanitarian and development work, conflict resolution, management, media and public relations and politics.

Jawed Ludin has worked for a number of international NGOs based in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United Kingdom.

Jawed Ludin was spokesperson of Karzai during the 2004 presidential election campaign On June 29,2005, Ludin was appointed Chief of Staff of President Hamid Karzai, with responsibility for overall management of the President's Office and its various organs, and remained in that post until January 2007 when he was replaced by Omar Daudzai.

The resignation of Jawed Ludin was due to political infighting within Karzai's government said senior officials.

Much of the blame for Karzai's poor performance has been blamed by Afghans on his staff and cabinet ministers and Jawed Ludin appears to have become a victim of the blame game.

Jawed Ludin submitted his resignation after Karzai had accused Jawed Ludin and Afghan Education Minister Hanif Atmar, who both had studied in Britain, of conspiring against him, although Karzai apologized later.

On June 3,2009, Jawed Ludin replaced Omar Samad as the Ambassador of Afghanistan to Canada.

Jawed Ludin has written extensively on Afghanistan, the region as well as on conflict and development issues, including co-authoring a book on conflict management strategies and articles and commentary in international publications, notably the Guardian in the UK.

Jawed Ludin is fluent in Pashto, Persian and English, and speaks some French and Hindi.

Jawed Ludin stressed the need for the UK and the US to focus on a political strategy, and not only a military strategy.

On 23 June 2005, following the arrest of three Pakistani's suspected of planning to murder US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, Jawed Ludin attacked Pakistan for not helping enough with the fight against terrorism.

Jawed Ludin said the plot is just one example of recent violence by Pakistanis or Arab foreigners within Afghanistan.

Jawed Ludin demanded immediate action from Islamabad against key leaders of the ousted Taliban regime sheltering in Pakistan and demanded that Pakistan close off its border to prevent the routed militants from fleeing back to a safe haven in Pakistan .

Jawed Ludin accused the Pakistani security forces of allowing militants to operate openly in cities such as Quetta, Karachi and Peshawar, as well as the tribal territories.

In 2007 Jawed Ludin said again that Afghanistan had long maintained that the Islamic militants operated from within Pakistan.

Towards Iran Jawed Ludin has been more kindly in his words.

In March 2004 Jawed Ludin announced the resignation of Afghan Planning Minister Mohammad Mohaqeq.

Jawed Ludin claimed that Mohaqeq expressed his desire to be out of the cabinet, but according to Mohaqeq he was illegally dismissed by president Karzai.

Jawed Ludin warned Dostum that, although Dostum was a Karzai adviser, if government investigation showed Dostum had anything to do with the uprising against Faryab Governor Anayatullah Anayat it would be deemed as an unlawful act.

In July 2004, when army commanders Ata Mohammad, Hazrat Ali and Khan Mohammed Khan were placed in civilian and police post it was, according to Jawed Ludin, to ensure that the upcoming presidential election was conducted freely and fairly, though the replacements were a result of careful negotiations.

When in December 2004 president Kaarzai appointed a new cabinet and ousted some high-profile warlords like Mohammed Fahim, Sayed Hussain Anwari and Gul Agha Sherzai, Jawed Ludin said this takes Afghanistan to a new era in which people come to the Cabinet because they are capable of serving the Afghan people and because they are educated.

When two UN aid workers were taken hostage Jawed Ludin informed the press of negotiations, saying, two weeks before they were released, that "a lot of progress has been made" and that, although the captors demanded the release of 26 prisoners, the government was prepared to do anything to ensure the safety of the United Nations staff members, who had been working on the Afghan presidential election.

Jawed Ludin makes such comments in order to put pressure on the government.

Jawed Ludin responded that any progress in reducing poppy cultivation was a result of Karzais efforts and that foreign donors had failed to follow up on promises with helping Afghan farmers to find other sources of income.

Jawed Ludin expressed concern over the condition of Afghan prisoners in the prisons of the coalition forces.

Opposition-leader Yunus Qanuni said that the information provided by Jawed Ludin was a distortion of the conclusions that Karzai drew at the end of the meeting.

In November 2006, right before the US midterm elections Jawed Ludin said he was not worried relations would change significantly after Democratic takeover of the House and Senate since Afghanistan has received bipartisan support from US politicians.

Jawed Ludin expressed sadness about the abrupt departure of US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, saying that Afghanistan was "very pleased and very grateful" for his support.

Jawed Ludin said that the government suspected elements from within and outside Afghanistan, hinting to Pakistan, had helped turn the peaceful protests violent, seeking to spread unrest while Mr Karzai was in Europe.

Jawed Ludin has acknowledged that not all the foreign aid money that came to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban has been spent wisely.

In 2009 Jawed Ludin stated that it is unfair to blame all of Afghanistan's troubles on a single individual [Karzai] who was denied the resources he needed from the start.

Jawed Ludin said his country's reversal was made possible by an article in the treaty that permits signatory nations to engage in military operations with nonsignatory nations like the United States.

Jawed Ludin expressed hope that Canada would still make a military contribution to his country after the 2011 deadline for withdrawal from Kandahar.

Jawed Ludin said Ignatieff's blanket criticism is unfair to the "many selfless, dedicated Afghans in the government" and added that 80 per cent of all foreign aid in Afghanistan is spent directly by donor-nations, bypassing the Afghan government altogether.

Around the same time, Jawed Ludin said that Canada's continued discussion of the treatment of Afghan detainees is a waste of time.

In May 2010, Jawed Ludin warned that Afghanistan without western aid and military assistance could be more dangerous than just a failed state.

Two weeks after the Afghan Presidential Election of August 2009, Jawed Ludin wrote an article in The Toronto Star In defence of the Afghan Elections.

The right response would be, according to Jawed Ludin, to maintain confidence in the integrity of the institutions in Afghanistan and support wholeheartedly whoever becomes the next president of Afghanistan.

Later, Jawed Ludin claimed that the extent of fraud was exaggerated by the media and defended Karzai who was accused of stuffing ballots.

Jawed Ludin said he personally witnessed stuffed ballot boxes during Afghanistan's parliamentary elections in 2005.

Jawed Ludin dismissed a third election-round or a coalition-government as illegal.

Jawed Ludin suggested that if one candidate stepped down, he could find himself with a job in a future government.

Jawed Ludin denied that as a result of this the legitimacy of Karzai will be in question.