About Hamid Karzai

Hamid Karzai, GCMG (born 24 December 1957) is the 12th and current President of Afghanistan, taking office on 7 December 2004. He is the half brother of the prominent Afghan drug trafficker Ahmed Wali Karzai. He became a dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001. During the December 2001 International Conference on Afghanistan in Germany, Karzai was selected by prominent Afghan political figures to serve a six month term as Chairman of the Interim Administration. He was then chosen for a two years term as Interim President during the 2002 loya jirga (grand assembly) that was held in Kabul, Afghanistan. After the 2004 presidential election, Karzai was declared winner and became President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. He won a second five-year-term after orchestrating an unprecedented level of fraud in the 2009 presidential