Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani

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Khalifa bin Hamad al-Thani, GCB,GCMG (Arabic: خليفة بن حمد آل ثاني) (born in Doha, Qatar in 1932) was the emir of Qatar from 1972 to 1995. On 22 February 1972, Shaikh Khalifa Bin Hamad Bin Abdullah Al-Thani took over from his cousin, Ahmad ibn `Ali Al Thani to become the Emir of Qatar and started the reorganisation of the government. The first task of Shaikh Khalifa was to appoint a Foreign Minister and an adviser to advise the Emir in the day-to-day affairs of the country. On 19 April 1972, he amended the Constitution and enlarged the Cabinet. On 18 July 1989, the Council of Ministers was reshuffled for the first time, replacing most of the previous ministers and now consisting of fifteen ministers. The Cabinet was again reshuffled on 1 September 1992, enlarging it to seventeen members.

In 1991, gas production in the Qatar North Field commenced. This field has reserves of around 250 trillion cubic feet (7,100 km³) and possible reserves of 500 trillion cubic feet (14,200 km³). Meanwhile the search for finding more oil continued.

While Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani was staying in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1995 his son Hamad bin Khalifa deposed him in a bloodless coup d'état. He lived in exile in France from the day he was deposed. He returned to Qatar in 2004. He was more conservative than his son, but in general he is thought to be the one who began the country's process of modernization.