Rasul, Kosrat

(1952- )

   Kosrat Rasul (Ali), a senior member of the politburo of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), was seriously injured in 1985 guerrilla fighting, which left him partially crippled, and also distinguished himself in the fighting that occurred during the Kurdish uprising in 1991. From 1993 until 1996, he served as the prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in an attempt to introduce more political figures into the administration. Until 2001, Kosrat Rasul continued as the prime minister of the rump PUK administration in Sulaymaniya after internal fighting began in 1994 between the PUK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). The KDP maintained its rump administration in Irbil. In January 2001, Kosrat Rasul became the executive director of the PUK politburo and on 21 June 2006 the vice president of the KRG. In January 2009, he resigned from the PUK in protest of its failure to combat corruption and lack of democracy, but soon afterward he rejoined. He briefly became a vice president of the KRG following the KRG elections of 25 July 2009, but then he resigned.