Mohammad Musa Shafiq

Mohammad Musa Shafiq (Pashto: محمد موسی شفيق )
Prime Minister of Afghanistan
In office 12 December 1972 – 17 July 1973
Monarch	Mohammad Zahir Shah
Preceded by	Abdul Zahir
Succeeded by	Nur Muhammad Taraki (1978 – 1979)
Personal details
Born	1932 Kama District, Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan
Died	1979 Kabul, Afghanistan
Political party	Independent

Mohammad Musa Shafiq (1932–1979) was Prime Minister of Afghanistan. He was an Afghan politician and poet. He became Foreign Minister in 1971 and Prime Minister in December 1972. He lost both positions when Mohammed Zahir Shah was overthrown on July 17, 1973. He survived throughout the regime of Mohammed Daoud Khan, but was arrested after the 1978 communist coup d'état and executed along with many other non-communist politicians in 1979.

Early life

Mohammad Musa Shafiq was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1932. His father was originally from Kama district of Nangarhar province.

Education

Mohammad Musa Shafiq was graduated from Kabul Arabic Religious High School. He earned his Master's degree from Al-Azhar University in Egypt. He earned an additional Master's degree from Columbia University in New York, United States of America.

Prime minister

As prime minister, Shafiq sought closer ties with the United States and promised a crack-down on opium growing and smuggling.^[1] Despite being prime minister for only seven months, Shafiq made significant progress toward stabilizing Afghanistan's government and renewing the Afghan public's confidence in the monarchy. Some scholars suggest that Shafiq's success as prime minister caused his overthrow to occur when it did. Under this theory, Daoud Khan and his conspirators decided to move forward with an already-planned coup d'état early, fearing that increased government popularity under Shafiq's leadership threatened popular support for a new regime led by Daoud. Because of Shafiq's success as prime minister, his seven months in power have been seen as a possible guide for contemporary Afghan leaders seeking government stabilization. However, little has been written in English about Shafiq's administration.

Notes

1. ^ Anderson, Jack (2 March 1973) "The Afghanistan Connection" The Syracuse Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York) page 5, column 3