ABDUR RAHMAN PAZHWAK

A poet, scholar, and writer in Pashto and Dari who served as president of the 21st General Assembly of the United Nations in 1966, and as ambassador to Bonn (1972), New Delhi (1973?, and London (1976-78).

Born in 1919 in Ghazni and educated Nangarhar and at Habibia School in Kabul, he started a career as journalist. He was editor of Islah (q.v., 1939), director general of the Pashto Academy, 1941, and was appointed press attache at the Afghan embassy in Washington in 1948 and London, 1946 and 1951. In 1955 he was appointed general director of political affairs in the ministry of foreign affairs.

In 195X he became Afghan ambassador to the United Nations. During the Taraki regime he was under house arrest and left Afghanistan for medical treatment in 1982. He applied for political asylum to the United Nations and went to the United States, but moved to Peshawar in April 1991.