Shireen Mazari | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Pakistan |
| Citizenship | Pakistan |
| Alma mater | London School of Economics and Political Science Columbia University |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Political Science |
| Institutions | Institute of Strategic Studies (ISS) Quaid-i-Azam University |
Shireen M. Mazari, PhD, is a Pakistani political scientist, geostrategist, defence analyst, journalist and stateswoman. She is currently working as the editor of the daily The Nation newspaper and as 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.[1]
She received her B.Sc (Honours) from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Ph.D in Political Science from Columbia University, New York.[citation needed]
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.[2]
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.[3]
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.[4]
The Nation published a front page article (“Journalists as spies in FATA?”[5]) on November 5, 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[6] 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[7] of protest, criticizing the unsubstantiated article for compromising Matt Rosenberg's security.
In a television interview[8] regarding the incident, Shireen Mazari strongly defended her story.
On November 20, 2009, "The Nation" published yet another front page story[9] 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[10] to Shireen Mazari on November 21, 2009.
Both Rosenberg and Berahulak have left Pakistan.[11]
She joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf on 25 November 2008 after a meeting with the Chairman of the party, Imran Khan.
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.[12]
She is the daughter of former bureaucrat turned politician Ashiq Mohammad Khan Mazari,known as AMK Mazari. She has two children.