Muhammad Yunus Nawandish

Who is Muhammad Yunus Nawandish?

Engineer Muhammad Yunus Nawandish is the current mayor of Kabul, appointed at the start of 2010. He is an ethnic Uzbek.

Earlier, as of 2002 Nawandish served as Afghan Deputy Minister for Water and Power.

Mayor Nawandish was appointed as Mayor of Kabul by the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in January, 2010, and governs a city of an estimated five million in population. Since taking office, the Mayor has initiated an aggressive program of municipal improvements in streets, parks, greenery, revenue collection, environmental control, and solid waste management.

Engineer Nawandish has thirty years of experience in the oil, gas and power sectors in Afghanistan. He served as the Manager of the Afghan Gas Refinery Department, Ministry of Mines and Industry from 1979 – 1981; as Assistant to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1984 – 1988; as Petroleum Engineer, from 1989 – 1992; and as a Professor of Engineering at Balkh University in northern Afghanistan from 1992 – 1994. From 1994 – 2001, the Mayor lived outside of Afghanistan during the Taliban regime.

From 2001 – 2005, the Mayor served as Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Energy and Water. Since 2005, he has managed new construction and rehabilitation projects in generation, transmission and distribution of energy in a conflict environment. He designed the largest power sector project in Afghanistan, the Northern Transmission System which provides power to Afghanistan from Uzbekistan. On behalf of the Afghan Government, he has coordinated over $500 million in power sector projects in cooperation with the Asian Development Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the European Union, The World Bank, and the Governments of India, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and South Korea. He has worked as a Senior Advisor on the U.S. Agency for International Development funded project to rehabilitate the Sheberghan gas fields.