Abdul Qayum Karzai was an Afghan politician and businessman.
19 Facts About Qayum Karzai
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Qayum Karzai was the elder brother of former President Hamid Karzai.
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Qayum Karzai's brothers include Mahmoud Karzai and the assassinated Ahmed Wali Karzai.
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Abdul Qayum was a businessman in the United States before entering into Afghan politics.
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Qayum Karzai served as a member of the Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of the National Assembly of Afghanistan.
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Under pressure from his brother Hamid Karzai, Qayum decided to quit the race in March 2014 and endorse Zalmai Rassoul.
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The report states that Qayum Karzai had a Master of Arts degree from American University in Washington, DC and owned five restaurants in Baltimore.
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Qayum Karzai sat on the second of the Loya Jirga's ten committees, chaired by Abdul Rasul Sayyaf.
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In October 2008, Qayum Karzai gave up his seat in the parliament, citing health problems as the reason he missed so many parliamentary sessions.
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Qayum Karzai was reportedly involved in secret meetings to work out some sort of peace agreement with the former Taliban government.
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Qayum Karzai traveled to Saudi Arabia to enlist their help in bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table, and ending the Taliban insurgency against the Afghan government.
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Qayum Karzai intended to run for president in the 2014 presidential election to succeed his brother, despite not having Hamid's support.
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Qayum Karzai owned three restaurants in Baltimore: the Helmand, Tapas Teatro, and Helmand Kabobi.
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Qayum's brother Mahmood Karzai owns The Helmand restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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Independent investigative journalists, Afghan businessmen, and others have alleged that Qayum Karzai used questionable and heavy-handed methods in Afghanistan, especially in dealing with business rivals.
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In 2012, shocking revelations were exposed in several major news stories where fellow Afghan associates of Qayum Karzai brought forth serious allegations about various controversial business dealings.
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Sharifi reportedly fled Afghanistan out of fear of President Karzai's brother and has detailed information about Qayum Karzai's alleged business dealings in Afghanistan that he says caused him to flee for his life and abandon major business ventures, property and investments in Afghanistan.
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Four other Kandahar sources, speaking to The Star on condition of anonymity, confirmed his account that Qayum Karzai muscle-flexing removed him from the city, with Qayum Karzai interests promptly taking over the bulk of his business.
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Qayum Karzai later resided in Columbia, Maryland, where he died on 29 May 2024, at age 77.