the country and offered them autonomy. In his speech to the group, Keshtmand said that the government was going to set up several new provinces in the Hazarajat that would be administered by the local inhabitants. Rise and fall of power He served as Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1981 to 1988 and 1989 to 1990, and as one of the vice presidents from May 1990 until April 1991, when he was dismissed shortly before the fall of the government. A mujaheddin radio station reports intra-Parcham (a faction of the PDPA) (P) clashes in Kabul between supporters of Najibullah and Keshtmand, chairman of the executive committee of the Council of Ministers. Non-PDPA member Mohammad Hassan Sharq was selected by President Najibullah to be the new Council of Ministers chairman, replacing Keshtmand. This move was made in order to free spaces in the new government for nonparty candidates. He then left Afghanistan, first moving to Russia and then to England. There he became an outspoken defender of the rights of Hazaras and other minorities, claiming that the Pashtun majority in Afghanistan had had too much power in all of Afghanistan's regimes, past and present. After the communist Saur Revolution, which toppled Daud Khan's first Afghan Republic, he reportedly said, "Brothers, today the five long centuries of Pashtun political domination has come to an end." References 1935 births Living people Afghan Muslims Vice presidents of Afghanistan Prime Ministers of Afghanistan Government ministers of Afghanistan Interior ministers of Afghanistan Mining ministers of Afghanistan Communist rulers of Afghanistan People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan politicians Hazara politicians Afghan exiles Afghan emigrants to England Afghan expatriates in Russia