Ghazan Naqvi (born 1998) was an Afghan National Coalition politician who served in the Wolesi Jirga from 2018. The son of a powerful Pashtun warlord, Naqvi entered politics as a young age and ran for President in 2018, narrowly losing to National Front candidate Malyar Lakhani in a 50.6%-49.4% vote.
Biography[]
Ghazan Naqvi was born in Gardez, Paktia Province, Afghanistan in 1998, the son of the Pashtun community leader Gul Hamid Naqvi. His father was an anti-Taliban warlord who was killed during the Afghan Civil War, upon which Naqvi was sent into exile in India. He was educated in New Delhi, and he returned to Afghanistan in 2014 to enter politics. As his father's only son, he was expected to inherit his father's political legacy, and, in 2018, he was elected to the Wolesi Jirga at the young age of 20. He became the leader of the National Coalition of Afghanistan, the country's largest democratic right-wing party, and he ran for President two weeks later, challenging the liberal National Front of Afghanistan leader Malyar Lakhani. Naqvi and his conservative campaign ultimately lost the election with 49.4% of the vote to Lakhani's 50.6% in a narrow loss, forcing Naqvi to return to his House of the People seat.