Sayed Ishaq Gailani is a national politician in Afghanistan. He is the founder and chairman of the National Solidarity Movement of Afghanistan. He was the first announced presidential candidate for the 2004 Afghan general election.[1][2] He claims leadership of the Gailani family, leaders of the Qadiriyah sect of Sufism, but is estranged from his family.
Ghailani was born in 1954 in Shar-e Naw, Kabul. He grew up in Kabul under the supervision of his father.[3] Gailani, a renowned politician and a veteran journalist, lived in Peshawar, Pakistan, for several years after the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan in 1996.
During testimony at Kako Kandahari's Combatant Status Review Tribunal Haji Ghalib testified that he had traveled to Persian Gulf during the Gulf War, under the leadership of an individual named Said Ghalani, to join the coalition opposing Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.[4] He testified Ghalani was leading a group of Afghan mujahideen called the Mahazamili.