Background
Abdullah Farhat was born on August 28, 1914, at Ouardanine, near Sousse.
Abdullah Farhat was born on August 28, 1914, at Ouardanine, near Sousse.
Educated at the Boys’ High School, Sousse and at the College of Arab Language and Literature, Tunis. On leaving school he took a job at the Post Office and rose to be an inspector.
On November 11, 1964, he was made Secretary of State at the Ministry of Communications. At the Party Congress at Bizerta in October 1964 he was elected a member of the Central Committee. The following year, in August 1965, he became a member of the Political Bureau.
Two months after his appointment as Secretary of State for Agriculture, he became Minister of Agriculture on November 7, 1969. On the same day he was appointed party treasurer. On October 29, 1971, he left the ministry after a government reshuffle and Bourguiba took him back into the Presidential Office as Chef de Cabinet.
A political activist from the age of 20 when he joined the Neo-Destour Party, he was a founder-member of the UGTT, the General Union of Tunisian Workers, which is the country’s only trade union. From 1948 to 1956 he was treasurer of the UGTT. His underground activities with the resistance movement resulted in his deportation to Kabili in December 1952.
His political advancement began with his election to the party’s Political Bureau in 1955 and his appointment as Vice-President of the Constituent Assembly. Bourguiba recognised his ability and made him his Chef de Cabinet in the first government after independence in 1956. After eight years in that influential post Farhat was transferred on January 1, 1964 to head the SNI, the National Investment Corporation.
Active in the underground movement during the 1939-45 war, he acquired a high reputation for efficiency and discretion in the resistance movement during the last days of the French administration. His influence in the party has been extensive since his appointment as treasurer in 1968. His ability to relax enables him to pursue his enthusiasm for shooting game where his prowess has led to his election as president of the Hunting Federation.
