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. He lost his son, Mohammed Bin Sultan, who died in London on April 3, 1999, aged 24. He was head of the ruler's office. Rumours had it that he died of drug overdose.

The Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC) is the highest authority for decisions in the hydrocarbon sector. Created by Shaikh Sultan's decree in October 1999, the SPC has taken over the role of the Department of Petroleum and Minerals which was disbanded. Shaikh Sultan initiates decisions, through the SPC Chairman and Deputy Ruler Shaikh Ahmad Bin Sultan and its Deputy Chairman Shaikh Sultan Bin Ahmad (see profiles below). The other SPC members include Abdel Wahid Al Saidi, Saleh Ali Obeid Al Ali, Salem Abdullah Rashid Al Sahoua, and Ahmad Danhash Al Mansour.

In November 1999 Shaikh Sultan decreed the creation of the Sharjah Executive Council to plan economic and security policies. Its task was "to ensure that all public departments work to achieve the interests of the community", said the statement from the ruler's office at the time. In February 2000, he decreed a ban on smoking in all public and government buildings throughout the emirate with immediate effect.

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 of Dubai.

Born in 1939, Shaikh Sultan is the fourth of six sons of the late Mohammed Bin Khalid. Until Shaikh Maktoum took over in Dubai in 1990, he is the most educated among the UAE rulers, having graduated from Cairo University with a degree in agriculture. (Maktoum and his brothers graduated from Cambridge, the UK). During the 1980s Shaikh Sultan 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. After leaving Cairo University in 1965, he co-operated closely with his elder brother, 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 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 40,000 b/d of condensates (light oil exceeding 49[degree sign] API), 810 MCF/day of natural gas, around 4,000 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, with federal entity EGPC taking some gas to the other northern emirates.