Shireen Mazari

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Shireen Mazari
(Urdu: شیرین مزاری‎)
MP
Residence Islamabad, Islamabad Capital Territory
Citizenship Pakistan
Nationality Pakistan
Fields Political Science
Institutions Institute of Strategic Studies (ISS)
Quaid-i-Azam University
Alma mater London School of Economics and Political Science
Columbia University

Central Information Secretary of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf
Incumbent
Assumed office
18 March 2013
Preceded by Shafqat Mahmood

Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf
In office
January 2002 – September 2012
Preceded by Position Established
Succeeded by Jalil Ahmad Sharkpuri

Director General of The Institute of Strategic Studies
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani
Succeeded by Ashraf Qazi
Personal details
Born Pakistan
Political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf
Profession Journalist, Politician
Religion Islam

Shireen Mehrunnisa Mazari (Urdu: شیرین مہرالنساء مزاری) is a Pakistani political scientist, journalist and a prominent geostrategist, who served as Director-General of the Foreign Affairs Tank of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf until she resignation from that organisation in September 2012, she again joined the party on 18 March 2013.[1] She was appointed central spokesperson of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.[2] She was nominated as a Member of National Assembly on a reserved seat for women by the party, she joined the current parliament on May 2013.

She has worked as the editor of the daily The Nation newspaper and was the Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf political party. She has also served as the Director General of The Institute of Strategic Studies, a think-tank based in Islamabad and was until recently a regular columnist at the daily The News International. She former served as professor of Military Science at the Quaid-e-Azam University. Mazari was removed from her position as editor of The News after charging that journalists and aid workers were operatives for the US Government and the CIA. She cites American pressure in these episodes, a charge that both the government and The News administration deny.[3]

Education

Mazari attended the London School of Economics and Political Science where she gained a B.Sc.(Hons), followed by double M.Sc. in Military Science and Political science from the same institution. Mazari then traveled to United States where she attended Columbia University. At Columbia, she was awarded a Ph.D. in Political Science where her dissertation contained a comprehensive studies on Military history, geostrategic, and the foreign policy of Pakistan.[4]

Career

Academic career

Mazari formerly was an Associate Professor and then Chairperson of the Department of Defense and Strategic Studies at the Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. She served as the Director General of The Institute of Strategic Studies, a research think-tank based in Islamabad until 2008. She was removed from this position in May 2008 before the end of her contract in August 2009, supposedly at the insistence of the United States, a point Mazari maintains despite United States denials. Former Foreign Secretary Ambassador Tanvir Ahmad Khan replaced her.[5]

Journalist and editor

Mazari was the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Weekly Pulse, from 1993 to 1999. She has also stayed as a regular columnist for The News International newspaper, writing for the daily as recently as 3 September 2009. She left the paper claiming American intrusion. Addressing a news conference, Mazari said that the US is poking its nose in all affairs of Pakistan, and when she started writing columns critical of the US policies in the region, the US Ambassador exerted pressure on the newspaper's management to suspend her writing.[citation needed] The News International team, however, denied this allegation, and issued a clarification.[6] Barely four days after leaving The News, she was offered the editor position at The Nation. She took over this position on 7 September 2009 vice Arif Nizami who was earlier sacked by his uncle and the Waqt Media Group editor-in-chief Majid Nizami.[7]

Controversies

The Nation published a front page article ("Journalists as spies in FATA?"[8]) on 5 November 2009, accusing the South Asian correspondent of "The Wall Street Journal", Matthew Rosenberg, of working for the CIA, Israeli intelligence, and the U.S. military contractor Blackwater. Wall Street Journal Managing Editor Robert Thomson wrote to Mazari[9] soon after the Rosenberg article appeared. Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Pearl, kidnapped and killed in 2002, was labelled a Jewish spy in a similar manner by some sections of Pakistani media. Twenty-one international news editors from Islamabad’s foreign correspondent community also signed a letter[10] of protest, criticizing the unsubstantiated article for compromising Matt Rosenberg's security.

In a television interview[11] regarding the incident, Shireen Mazari strongly defended her story. On 20 November 2009, "The Nation" published yet another front page story[12] with a photograph of what it described as "Mysterious US nationals". "According to a source in another investigation agency, the foreigners seemingly belonged to the US spy agency CIA. It was evident from the fact that two police commandos were escorting them, the source added."However, it turned out that this "Mysterious US National" was in fact the award-winning Australian photojournalist Daniel Berehulak, who works for Getty Images. Hugh Pinney, Getty’s senior director of photography, wrote[13] to Shireen Mazari on 21 November 2009. Both Rosenberg and Berahulak have left Pakistan.[14]

Political career

Mazari's views are considered to be a form of Pakistan nationalism and strong vocal of the Two-Nation Theory. Outspoken on Pakistan Foreign policy, she remains one of the academic openly criticizing Drone attacks and continue to criticize American-Pakistan relations. She joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf on 25 November 2008 after a meeting with the Chairman of the party, Imran Khan. She resigned from PTI on 26 September 2012, on political differences.[15] She rejoined the party in March 2013.

Views

She is a vocal critic of the United States policies in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Mazari said her life has been under threat adding that the Minister of Interior and US diplomats will be responsible if anything happened to her.[16]

Family

She is the daughter of former bureaucrat turned politician Ashiq Mohammad Khan Mazari, known as AMK Mazari. Her uncles are Sherbaz Mazari, prominent Pakistani politician, and Safdar H. Mazari, former chief medical officer of Rush University Medical Center. She has two children.

Books

  • Pakistan's Lesson from its Kargil War: An Analysis (1999)

References

  1. ↑ Shireen Mazari rejoins PTI
  2. ↑ PTI Chairman appoints Shireen as his Spokesperson
  3. ↑ "Imran Khan's Shireen Mazari and her shoddy journalism", Retrieved 23 May 2010
  4. ↑ Dr.Shireen Mazari
  5. ↑ "ISSI DG Shireen Mazari removed" Daily Times, 15 May 2008
  6. ↑ "Clarification by The News group" "The News", 7 September 2009
  7. ↑ "Shireen Mazari replaces Arif Nizami as Editor The Nation" Daily Times, 8 September 2009
  8. ↑ "Journalists as spies in FATA?" The Nation, 5 November 2009
  9. ↑ "Letter from WSJ to Mazari", "Committee to Protect Journalists", 6 November 2009
  10. ↑ "Letter about The Nation article" "Committee to Protect Journalists", 16 November 2009
  11. ↑ "Dawn News TV Interview" "Youtube" 17 Nov 2009
  12. ↑ "Mysterious US Nationals" "The Nation" 20 November 2009
  13. ↑ "Letter from Getty Images to The Nation" "Committee to Protect Journalists", 21 November 2009
  14. ↑ "CIA slur has chilling parallel with Daniel Pearl" "The Australian" 26 November 2009
  15. ↑ "Mazari resigns from PTI". Daily Times (Pakistan). 27 September 2012. Retrieved 26 September 2012. 
  16. ↑ http://www.sananews.com.pk/english/2009/09/02/us-base-being-built-in-sindh-mazari/

External links

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