Mohammad Yusuf

Who was Mohammad Yusuf?

Dr. Mohammad Yusuf Khan was the prime minister and foreign minister of Afghanistan from March 10, 1963 to November 2, 1965. He was a technocrat who served under the reign of Mohammed Zahir Shah. He was the first Afghan prime minister not to be part of the royal family. He resigned on October 29, 1965.

Yusuf's predecessor, Mohammed Daoud Khan, had made him Minister of Mines and Industries in the 1950s. After serving as prime minister, he was appointed Ambassador to the Soviet Union, but left this post in 1973 following Daoud Khan's coup. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, he went into exile in Germany, where he lived until his death.