UAE - Profile - Shaikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qassimi

The ruler of Sharjah since January 1972, Shaikh Sultan is a pragmatist. He has turned his emirate into a business centre complementing, rather than competing with, that of Dubai. He is in alliance with Dubai's ruling Al Maktoum family.

Shaikh Sultan was toppled but quickly reinstated during a brief power struggle with his elder brother, Shaikh Abdel Aziz, in July 1987. Although the latter then became crown prince and deputy ruler, Shaikh Sultan on Feb. 4, 1990 stripped Abdel Aziz of all his powers. In the power struggle, Shaikh Sultan received support from the powerful Shaikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

Born in 1939, Shaikh Sultan is the fourth of six sons of the late Mohammed Bin Khalid. He is the most educated among UAE rulers, having graduated from Cairo University with a degree in agriculture. During the 1980s he gained a doctorate from Exeter University in Britain. His career history is as follows: He started as a teacher in the Sharjah Technical Training School in the early 1960s. Afterleaving Cairo University in 1965, he co-operated closely with his elder brother, the then ruler of Sharjah the late Shaikh Khalid Bin Mohammed. He became UAE minister of education in 1971-72. After the assassination of his brother Shaikh Khalid in January 1972, Shaikh Sultan was unanimously elected ruler by the family council.

The assassination was part of a coup attempt by his cousin Shaikh Saqr Bin Sultan, of the "Bani Sultan" branch, whom Khalid had toppled in the 1960s. Another coup attempt in June 1987, this time by Shaikh Sultan's brother Abdel Aziz, was foiled with the help of Dubai and the support of Iran and Oman. Since then, Shaikh Sultan has concentrated on the emirate's vital sectors.

The hydrocarbon sector provides Sharjah with about 80% of its income, mainly from an average of 62,000 b/d of condensates (light oil exceeding 49 deg. API), 950 MCF/day of natural gas, around 5,000 b/d of crude oil and the LPG export plant at Hamriya. A major part of the gas production is exported by pipeline to neighbouring Dubai, and with federal entity EGPC taking some gas to the other northern emirates.