Pakistani Journalist Ejaz Haider Joins Brookings as Visiting Fellow

Ejaz Haider, news editor of The Friday Times and foreign/op-ed editor of Daily Times, both based in Lahore, Pakistan, has joined the Brookings Institution as a visiting fellow through March 2003.

While at Brookings, Haider will be affiliated with the India/South Asia Project in the Foreign Policy Studies program. His focus will be civil-military relations in Pakistan—particularly the 1999 military coup that led to the ouster of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif—as well as U.S.-Pakistan relations.

“Ejaz’s work at the South Asia project will enhance our understanding of the U.S.-Pakistan relationship at a time when it has undergone recent, dramatic changes,” said James B. Steinberg, vice president and director of the Foreign Policy Studies program. “His long reporting career in Pakistan will also allow us a unique perspective on the country’s internal dynamics, as well as relations with its neighbors, particularly India.”

Since 1995, Haider has been news editor of The Friday Times, Pakistan’s most independent weekly newspaper. In April 2002, The Friday Times launched a new publication, Daily Times. The Friday Times has long advocated a review of government policy toward fundamentalist Islam, Afghanistan, and Kashmir. The newspaper has taken a hard stand against corruption in government that ultimately led Nawaz Sharif to illegally detain its chief editor, Najam Sethi, in May 1999.

Before joining the staff of The Friday Times, Haider was assistant editor at the Lahore edition of The Frontier Post. During his career, he has reported extensively on security issues, Afghanistan, and political Islam. His weekly column for The Friday Times focuses on security, Pakistani politics, Pakistan-India relations, and political Islam.

In addition to his reporting and editing work, Haider has been a visiting lecturer or scholar at various institutions, including the University of Illinois as well as the National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA) and Administrative Staff College, both in Lahore. In 1997, his paper on Pakistan’s internal dynamics and foreign policy earned him the Kodikara Award from the Sri Lanka-based Regional Centre for Strategic Studies.

From 1999 until March 2002, Haider was the project coordinator for the Asia-Europe Dialogue, sponsored by the Heinrich Boell Foundation. The project addresses alternative strategies on problems of globalization and nuclear proliferation.

Haider has written extensively for other publications based in Asia, including the Times of India, India Abroad, Central Asia Monitor, and The World Today, a monthly publication of the Royal Institute for International Relations in London. He is currently working on a compilation of essays on national security originally written for The Friday Times, which will be published by Vanguard Publishers (Lahore) in 2003.

Haider earned his M.A. in English literature from the University of Punjab in 1986.