Personal background: Turan Sahib Abdul Khaliq Khan Balakarzai, son of Haji Abdul Razaq, was born in 1959 in Balakarzai village, Dand district, Kandahar province. He is married and has six children. His father, Abdul Razaq, was a Kandahar senator in 1969, under Zahir Shah’s reign, and was a leader of the Popalzai tribe. Turan Sahib is interested in reading and sports. His first language is Pashto and he also speaks Dari and a little English.

Education: Balakarzai completed his studies at Harbi Khwanzai Military School in 1975 in Kabul and graduated from the artillery department of Harbi Pohantoon Military University in Pul-i Charkhi, Kabul in 1978.

Previous occupation: From 1978-1980, Balakarzai was the Logistics Commander of the 101st Artillery Battalion of the Afghan Army’s Second Corp in Kandahar. In 1980, he joined the Mujahideen and was a commander for Hezb-e-Jamiat Islami Afghanistan for ten years. After the fall of the Taliban, from 2001-2004, he worked with the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) process in Kandahar province. From 2004 to 2005, he served as district governor of Spin Boldak district; following this, he joined the Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DAIG) program in Kandahar through 2010.

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