Attaboy

摘要

Few outside Kabul are as powerful as the governor of Balkh, a province in northern Afghanistan. Win an audience with Atta Mohammad Noor and you are left in little doubt of his status. He receives guests from a golden throne at the end of a long hall hung with chandeliers. His word exerts iron control over the provincial capital, Mazar-i-Sharif, and to Hairatan, the nearby, lucrative border with Uzbekistan. A former schoolteacher, he is better known as Ustad Atta. Officially beholden to Kabul and appointed by the president, Hamid Karzai, in practice he is his own man, a potentate of the north with huge wealth and carefully consolidated support. Among Afghan provincial governors, he enjoys an unrivalled degree of autonomy. Ahead of a presidential election next year, when Mr Karzai stands down, speculation is growing that Ustad Atta will prove to be the kingmaker.