Abdul Qayum Karzai is President Hamid Karzai

Hamid Karzai

Hamid Karzai, GCMG is the 12th and current President of Afghanistan, taking office on 7 December 2004. He became a dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001...

's older brother, a businessman and a former member of the Wolesi Jirga, Afghanistan's National Assembly.

Family

According to a report on Kandahar prepared for the Navy Postgraduate School he is Hamid Karzai

Hamid Karzai

Hamid Karzai, GCMG is the 12th and current President of Afghanistan, taking office on 7 December 2004. He became a dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001...

's brother, and their family is from the Popolzai tribe of the Pashtun

Pashtun people

Pashtuns or Pathans , also known as ethnic Afghans , are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group with populations primarily between the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the Indus River in Pakistan...

 ethnic group. The report states he has a Masters of Arts

Master of Arts (postgraduate)

A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...

 from the American University

American University

American University is a private, Methodist, liberal arts, and research university in Washington, D.C. The university was chartered by an Act of Congress on December 5, 1892 as "The American University", which was approved by President Benjamin Harrison on February 24, 1893...

, and he is reported to own "at least one restaurant in the U.S."

Political career

Many Afghans were very critical of Abdul Qayum Karzai for his very poor attendance in parliament. In the summer of 2008, the speaker of the parliament, Yunus Qanuni

Yunus Qanuni

Yunus Qanuni is a politician in Afghanistan. An ethnic Tajik from the Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan, Qanuni is the leader of the Afghanistan e Naween political party and former Speaker of the House of the People .-Pre Election...

 began publishing the regular attendance tallies, and this put added pressure on Karzai to respond. In October 2008, Abdul Qayum Karzai gave up his seat in the parliament and cited health problems as the reason he missed so many parliamentary sessions.

Qayum Karzai has also reportedly been involved in secret meetings to work out some sort of peace agreement

Peace treaty

A peace treaty is an agreement between two or more hostile parties, usually countries or governments, that formally ends a state of war between the parties...

 with the Taliban. He has traveled to Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

 to enlist their help in bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table, and ending the Taliban war against the Afghan government.

Life in the U.S.

Quayam Karzai owns a restaurant in Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

, the Helmand, and resides in Columbia, Maryland

Columbia, Maryland

Columbia is a planned community that consists of ten self-contained villages, located in Howard County, Maryland, United States. It began with the idea that a city could enhance its residents' quality of life. Creator and developer James W. Rouse saw the new community in terms of human values, not...

.