Mohammed Masoom Stanekzai

Mohammed Masoom Stanekzai (Pashto: محمد معصوم ستانکزی; 1958), is a citizen of Afghanistan was appointed Afghan Communications Minister from 2002-2004. and currently he is serving as Security Adviser to The President Karzai and became the CEO of the Joint Secretariat of the Afghanistan Peace and Reintegration Program in 2009, and has served as the CEO since then. He was seriously injured in the suicide bombing that killed High Peace Council Chairman Berhanuddin Rabbani on September 20, 2011, but recovered from his injuries.

Early life
Masoom Stanekzai was born in Mughul khel village of Mohammad Agha District of Logar Province in Stanekzai tribe on 1958 to a middle-class family as third child of Mahmood khan a government servant, after high school graduation he joined Kabul Telecome institute and he after that he was graduated from Kabul military University and he joined Afghanistan Democratic Republic Army

Career
He has served as Director of the Agency for Rehabilitation and Energy Conservation in Afghanistan (2001-2002), Minister of Telecommunication/Information and Communications Technology in the Afghan Transitional Government ( 2002- 2004), Secretary of the High Council for Peace and Reconcilliation (2010-2014),Security Adviser to The President and "Reintegration Minister" An adviser to Afghan President Hamid Karzai and vice chair of the Demobilization and Reintegration Commission, a group responsible for the disbandment of illegal armed groups,

From 2002 to 2004, he was minister of telecommunication/ information and communications technology in the Afghan Transitional Government. Prior to that, he was director of the Agency for Rehabilitation and Energy Conservation in Afghanistan.

He has 25 years of substantive experience in design and management, including the telecom sector, humanitarian and community development, renewable energy, governance and security sector reform. He has worked with government entities, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, NGOs, the U.N., and private sectors in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.

Most recently, he completed a draft regulatory framework for the operation of private security companies in Afghanistan, which was adopted by the government. Stanekzai was a Jennings Randolph Afghanistan Fellow May 1, 2008 - February 28, 2009. He is also working for the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) 1200 17th Street N.W. - Washington, D.C. 20036 Tel: +1.202.457.1700 Fax: +1.202.429.6063, but is mostly based in Kabul, Afghanistan. His Project Focus is: Security, Reconstruction and Reconciliation in Afghanistan Phone: (202) 429-3874 E-mail: mstanekzai@usip.orgMasoom Stanekzai in charge of reconciliation acknowledged February 2, 2010 that the government had been in talks for some time with Taliban leaders to bring them into the government and end the war, dismissing the Taliban’s denials.Among members of the High Peace Council, only Massom Stanikzai is present in all secrete and public talks with the Taliban, and the rest are excluded from the process. But  President Karzai did not officially put an end to the council and has not yet come to the conclusion that the council is no longer fruitful. He avoids to decide that it is best to activate the council again by appointing a new head, and revising its policies and structure in order to have a pivotal place in talks.

Education
Mohammad Massoom Stanekzai earned a master’s degree in philosophy of engineering for sustainable development from Cambridge University and a master’s in business management from Preston University. He has a B.A. from the Kabul Telecom Institute and is a graduate of the Kabul Military University. .Languages spoken  Dari, Pashto and English

In 2008 Masoom was made a visiting fellow at the United States Institute of Peace. Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai was made the Jennings Randolph Afghanistan Fellow from May 1, 2008 to February 28, 2009.

Stanekzai’s research focuses on security, reconstruction and reconciliation in Afghanistan.