Background
An ethnic Pashtun, he was born in the Laghman Province of Afghanistan.
An ethnic Pashtun, he was born in the Laghman Province of Afghanistan.
He attended secondary school in Kabul and university in the United States, earning an Doctor of Medicine from Columbia University and a Master"s degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University.
Zahir became a medical doctor and returned to Afghanistan to practice medicine, but eventually entered politics. His political positions included terms as Minister of Health, President of the Parliament, and Ambassador to Italy and Pakistan. Most prominently, he served as Prime Minister of Afghanistan from June 1971 to December 1972.
A few months after he resigned from that post, King Zahir Shah was overthrown and Abdul Zahir had to retire from politics.
Zahir was married to Quraisha and had four children. He resigned from his post and lived in Peshawar, Pakistan, where he started a campaign for peace in Afghanistan by setting up a political group called the Afghan National Movement (ANM).