Asad Sakhi Farhad
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Title: Deputy Minister of Customs; Afghanistan Undergraduate: MPA; SUNY Albany Home Country: |
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© Orange County Register
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Asad Farhad came to the United States in 1976 on a full scholarship to study public administration at the State University of New York. He planned on returning to Afghanistan following his education, but after the soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1979, he applied for political asylum and became a U.S. citizen. Farhad worked as a commercial banker and life insurance salesman. In November 2003, nearly two years after the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, Farhad received an e-mail inviting him to return to Afghanistan to serve as the head of the civil service departments in Afghanistan’s new democratic government. Farhad helped to restructure the civil-service department and became the Deputy Minister of Customs in the Ministry of Finance. This position presented Farhad with the challenge of rebuilding the country’s tax structure. Speaking of his return, Farhad said, “I always felt like Afghanistan was calling me and wanted to be of service to my people and my motherland.” |
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