Sultan Ali Keshtmand (; 22 May 1935 – 13 March 2026), sometimes transliterated as Kishtmand or Kashtmand, was an Afghan politician, belonging to the Parcham faction of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). He served twice as the Chairman of the Council of Ministers during the 1980s, from 1981 to 1988 and from 1989 to 1990 in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
Early life
Keshtmand was born in the spring of 1935 in Kabul, in the Kingdom of Afghanistan to a farming peasant family. He was a prominent member of the Hazara ethnic group. His father was from the 'Daifuladi' tribe of the Hazara, with Keshtmand claiming that his ancestral home is Ajristan, which is a part of Malistan district of Ghazni.
He would go on to study economics at Kabul University,
In December 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, bringing Babrak Karmal and the Parcham faction to power. Keshtmand was subsequently released from jail, and re-joined the party's Politburo. and Prince Souphanouvong of Laos.
The rise in the government deficit was of great concern, and the tax collections were inadequate because of the level of increased state spending, as Keshtmand noted in April 1983. The war in the country, however, prevented the government from improving the tax collection system. and Vladimir Lenin's 116th birthday, being received by Soviet Premier Nikolai Ryzhkov. During the visit, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev informed Keshtmand of his plan to withdraw Soviet forces from Afghanistan and the need for the PDPA to prepare for this eventuality. alongside reaffirming their alliance and aligning diplomatic views in a joint communique, condemning the American bombing of Libya as a "bandit attack" and advocating for the self-determination of the Palestinian people.
Keshtmand served as Chair of the Council of Ministers from 1981 to 1988 and from 1989 to 1990, and as one of the vice presidents (a largely ceremonial role) His time in office was characterised by his management of the wartime economy, preventing widespread famine and food shortages during the wars through strategic reserves of petroleum, food, and military resources throughout urban and provincial warehouses.
Personal life and death
Keshtmand had five brothers and three sisters. He studied Agriculture in France, becoming an "active member" of the French Communist Party in Toulouse during this time.
He married his wife, Karima (born September 1946), in 1966, having four children in total. She would become a politician alongside her husband in various important roles in the PDPA government.
Keshtmand and his family fled Afghanistan to Russia in 1992,
He subsequently became an activist and 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 Saur Revolution, which toppled Daoud Khan's first Afghan Republic, he reportedly said, "Brothers, today the five long centuries of Pashtun political domination has come to an end." The Australian Greens released a statement following his death, expressing condolences to his family and the wider Hazara community, of which he was a prominent leader.