Columnist and TV Commentator
Hope drives him, for ten years down the line Ahmed Quraishi finds Pakistan to be ‘A RISING POWER IN THE REGION – STUMBLING OCCASIONALLY, BUT ON ITS WAY’. The following sage words of Napoleon Bonaparte inspire this dynamic lad to a great extent, owing to the fact that Ahmed Quraishi too endorses and appreciates the gut feeling component in any decision making:
“Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
Upbringing and Education:
Born and bred in Kuwait City, Ahmed Quraishi is a polyglot with a distinct taste for every language that he is proficient in. Born on 17th May 1972 to the second wife of ‘Abdel-Mughni bin Abdel-Qadir Quraishi’, Ahmed had an uncanny knack for politics and did analyses of the geo-political happenings around him from the very early stage of his life. All that he would look for after entering home from the school was the newspaper. He graduated from ‘Ka’ab Bin Uday High School’ in Kuwait City, before joining Kuwait University’s School of Political Science. Out of sheer interest and a strong motivation to make the power of communication his strength in a unique fashion, he has been reading history and political science focusing a lot on Middle East and Central Asia. Ahmed has command over the politics of the United States as well. He did secure admission in a business school as well and attended sessions there for a while but did not continue postgraduate-level work.
Family:
Coming from a background of Armed Forces, Ahmed was reared up in an environment of intellect and discipline. He rates his father stricter than his mother, but the sparkle in his eyes while he mentions anything about his father speaks volumes of the respect and awe that Ahmed holds for his deceased father.
His deep and profound association with the Middle East makes him feel proud and dignified: to be a part of a family lineage which has its roots in the region’s great history. His father fought with the British Army in Iraq in the World War II, but refused to obey orders when told to join troops sent to quell an uprising by Palestinians in Jerusalem. He made his way back through Kuwait and worked with the Kuwaiti Establishment to eventually gain independence from Britain.
Ahmed Quraishi is a descendant of an Arab trader who travelled across borders to gain positions in many an Islamic Sultanates. Eight centuries ago he came to Multan, then capital of an Arab emirate which briefly flourished across Sind and what is known today as Punjab. That trader’s businesses then took him to Delhi as well, which is known in history as a capital built by Muslim dynasties which then ruled what is now India.
As of today, Ahmed is married to Aysha Mughal and has a son named Alwaleed.
A career in Journalism – potential and skills tapped:
As a young teenager he started writing on politics for a couple of well-known Arabic dailies. In the year 1993, when he was in his early twenties he found academia not really fulfilling and began a career in print journalism after taking a break from school.
His style won him instant recognition despite his young age. His bosses assigned him to investigative reporting and soon he found himself covering major stories in the Middle East. A sharp writing style and willingness to break taboos were the hallmarks of his reports. He got away with most of it in a region infested with suspicious governments because, well, he was a Pakistani, which literally made it difficult for security officials to place him within Middle East' confusing maze of political alliances and rivalries.
In the year 2000, in a letter of recommendation for a challenging government project, Mr. Faisal Al Qanai, the chairman of the Kuwait Journalists Association, described Ahmed Quraishi in these words:
“In a [Kuwaiti] media that prides itself of having a 40-year-old history, it is rare to have a journalist like Mr. Ahmed Quraishi. His work has helped us push the red line a few inches back.”
Starting in the year 2003, Ahmed Quraishi occasionally lent his expertise to FurmaanRealpolitik, Inc., [www.furmaanrealpolitik.com.pk] a political consulting firm originally based in Dubai. He tailored and executed government-assigned public outreach projects. He has also been producing foreign policy programming on three major television networks in the region in English, Arabic, and Urdu languages.
Between 2006 and 2008, he hosted a weekly political talk show titled Worldview from Islamabad, which he created for state-run PTV News, Pakistan’s largest television network. The program was a creative public outreach effort, introducing the concept of dynamic, fast-paced television production to Pakistan’s nascent television industry. The show turned out to be a platform projecting Pakistan’s foreign policy priorities. The show proved a catalyst for the modernization of the state-run channel.
A career well traversed
A career investigative reporter, Ahmed was appointed in 1996 in the investigative unit of Kuwait-based al-Rai al-Aam newspaper (www.alraialaam.com), writing in Arabic for a major Arabic-language newspaper.
He extensively covered the politics of the Middle East, specializing in incisive, rigorously analytical, and investigative reporting at a time when the concept of investigative journalism was not encouraged in mostly state-controlled Arab media. Using the platform of Kuwait's vibrant and relatively free media and the emirate's liberal press laws, Ahmed worked on stories rarely explored and published in Arab print media at the time:
• The Japanese Red Army history in Bekaa Valley, Lebanon (1997)
• An in-depth survey of separatist militant ethnic groups inside Iran (1996)
• The safe havens of Turkey's separatist PKK elements in Syria (1998)
• A series of reports identifying a new emerging phenomenon in Arab politics, where smaller and ‘peripheral’ Arab states in the 1990s began challenging the traditional hegemony of large Arab countries in economy, media outreach, and international relations (1999). Mr. Quraishi's work in this area, published in Arabic, was probably one of the first pointers to this new development.
He worked for Middle East's two main Arabic-language television news networks: as the Pakistan correspondent and analyst for the Qatar-based Aljazeera satellite television news network during the Afghanistan war in 2001, and later as the Pakistan and Central Asia producer and correspondent for the Abu Dhabi Satellite News Television. Even today, Ahmed is probably the only non-Arab TV journalist to have done on-camera work in Arabic for the two networks.
He was accredited to the Kuwaiti Government to work for six months in 1995 as a principal researcher for the documentary Heart of the Storm, an exclusive private production for Britain’s Channel Four television.
Pakistani Politics – between ecstasy and abyss of despair:
Ahmed urges all to stand for Pakistani nationalism, or what he calls PakNationalism, and shun provincialism. He says that we carry forward a legacy, we have been the custodians of the Mughal Empire and we need to act like a responsible and proud people. He feels that it is the duty of the state to instill pride in its people by giving them a vision to pursue. Ahmed, an ardent advocate of guided governance as a more meaningful form of governance, holds high regard for General Ayub, General Zia ul Haq and even Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. He praises Bhutto’s contributions for the nuclear program but laments him for letting go of East Pakistan.
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Ahmed Quraishi finds dictatorship not-so-bad, given the defective electoral system and other loopholes in the Pakistani political system. Ahmed says that “All great achievements in governance and statehood have been done by strong, compassionate, committed leaders and not democratic leaders. These include Napoleon Bonaparte, George Washington (elected later as a democratic leader but initially established himself as a dictator), Cromwell and Bismarck.”
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He recommends a strong federal government with smaller, non-ethnic based provinces; for he believes that it is high time that we abolish ethnic lines. USA, for once, has not even a single state which stands for ethnicity though formed on ethnic grounds. He calls for a complete re-construction of the political system. Ahmed opines that educated, clean-minded and nonpolitical Pakistanis need to borrow assistance from the Military in order to put in place a new system.
On the international front, he praises Saddam for transforming Iraq into a vibrant state, for until the Iran Iraq war took place Iraq was the most enlightened and vibrant nation in the entire Middle East. He also praises Vladimir Putin for doing a great job. He compares him with Musharraf and says that he succeeded where Musharraf failed. When Putin became the President of Russia, Russia was penetrated and deeply influenced by UK and USA. He asked the media to behave in a patriotic manner and instilled pride in Russians. Today, Putin is the most popular man in Russia. On the Contrary, General Musharraf trusted the United States too much.
Ahmed appreciates the leadership of China, Singapore and South Korea.
He appreciates Imran Khan for his social work and also appreciates the ‘Citizen Police Liaison Committee’ (CPLC) formed in Sind. He urges the youth to play their role, all sorts of grass root work awaits them. Referring to his childhood hero, he mentions about ‘Haji Abdul Qadir Al Hussaini’ who died fighting the British occupation and Zionist groups in Palestine. He belonged to Al-Quds and was a true charismatic leader; he gave a hard time to the occupiers of Palestine.
Exile on Main Street
Ahmed Quraishi – on the personal front:
A great player of chess and a more-than-true lover of computer strategy games; Ahmed also loves cats and dogs to be kept as pets. He loves Arabic poetry and has recently started to enjoy Iqbal’s poetry as well. He finds Arabic and Persian Music really soothing.
Ahmed Quraishi appreciates Daily Times and The News International. He says that the choice of articles at daily times reflects cultured journalism. But he finds what he calls the ‘self-defeating liberalism’ of the paper abhorring because liberalism should not come to mean hating your own nation and culture.
In international publications, he is a great fan of Thomas Freidman and Maureen Daud, both writing for the NYT; the former in serious writing and latter in sarcastic writing.
Among local columnists he likes the writings of Shireen Mazari.
Breach of Trust
Hope drives him, for ten years down the line Ahmed Quraishi finds Pakistan to be ‘A RISING POWER IN THE REGION – STUMBLING OCCASIONALLY, BUT ON ITS WAY’. The following sage words of Napoleon Bonaparte inspire this dynamic lad to a great extent, owing to the fact that Ahmed Quraishi too endorses and appreciates the gut feeling component in any decision making:
“Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
Upbringing and Education:
Born and bred in Kuwait City, Ahmed Quraishi is a polyglot with a distinct taste for every language that he is proficient in. Born on 17th May 1972 to the second wife of ‘Abdel-Mughni bin Abdel-Qadir Quraishi’, Ahmed had an uncanny knack for politics and did analyses of the geo-political happenings around him from the very early stage of his life. All that he would look for after entering home from the school was the newspaper. He graduated from ‘Ka’ab Bin Uday High School’ in Kuwait City, before joining Kuwait University’s School of Political Science. Out of sheer interest and a strong motivation to make the power of communication his strength in a unique fashion, he has been reading history and political science focusing a lot on Middle East and Central Asia. Ahmed has command over the politics of the United States as well. He did secure admission in a business school as well and attended sessions there for a while but did not continue postgraduate-level work.
Family:
Coming from a background of Armed Forces, Ahmed was reared up in an environment of intellect and discipline. He rates his father stricter than his mother, but the sparkle in his eyes while he mentions anything about his father speaks volumes of the respect and awe that Ahmed holds for his deceased father.
His deep and profound association with the Middle East makes him feel proud and dignified: to be a part of a family lineage which has its roots in the region’s great history. His father fought with the British Army in Iraq in the World War II, but refused to obey orders when told to join troops sent to quell an uprising by Palestinians in Jerusalem. He made his way back through Kuwait and worked with the Kuwaiti Establishment to eventually gain independence from Britain.
Ahmed Quraishi is a descendant of an Arab trader who travelled across borders to gain positions in many an Islamic Sultanates. Eight centuries ago he came to Multan, then capital of an Arab emirate which briefly flourished across Sind and what is known today as Punjab. That trader’s businesses then took him to Delhi as well, which is known in history as a capital built by Muslim dynasties which then ruled what is now India.
As of today, Ahmed is married to Aysha Mughal and has a son named Alwaleed.
A career in Journalism – potential and skills tapped:
As a young teenager he started writing on politics for a couple of well-known Arabic dailies. In the year 1993, when he was in his early twenties he found academia not really fulfilling and began a career in print journalism after taking a break from school.
His style won him instant recognition despite his young age. His bosses assigned him to investigative reporting and soon he found himself covering major stories in the Middle East. A sharp writing style and willingness to break taboos were the hallmarks of his reports. He got away with most of it in a region infested with suspicious governments because, well, he was a Pakistani, which literally made it difficult for security officials to place him within Middle East' confusing maze of political alliances and rivalries.
In the year 2000, in a letter of recommendation for a challenging government project, Mr. Faisal Al Qanai, the chairman of the Kuwait Journalists Association, described Ahmed Quraishi in these words:
“In a [Kuwaiti] media that prides itself of having a 40-year-old history, it is rare to have a journalist like Mr. Ahmed Quraishi. His work has helped us push the red line a few inches back.”
Starting in the year 2003, Ahmed Quraishi occasionally lent his expertise to FurmaanRealpolitik, Inc., [www.furmaanrealpolitik.com.pk] a political consulting firm originally based in Dubai. He tailored and executed government-assigned public outreach projects. He has also been producing foreign policy programming on three major television networks in the region in English, Arabic, and Urdu languages.
Between 2006 and 2008, he hosted a weekly political talk show titled Worldview from Islamabad, which he created for state-run PTV News, Pakistan’s largest television network. The program was a creative public outreach effort, introducing the concept of dynamic, fast-paced television production to Pakistan’s nascent television industry. The show turned out to be a platform projecting Pakistan’s foreign policy priorities. The show proved a catalyst for the modernization of the state-run channel.
A career well traversed
A career investigative reporter, Ahmed was appointed in 1996 in the investigative unit of Kuwait-based al-Rai al-Aam newspaper (www.alraialaam.com), writing in Arabic for a major Arabic-language newspaper.
He extensively covered the politics of the Middle East, specializing in incisive, rigorously analytical, and investigative reporting at a time when the concept of investigative journalism was not encouraged in mostly state-controlled Arab media. Using the platform of Kuwait's vibrant and relatively free media and the emirate's liberal press laws, Ahmed worked on stories rarely explored and published in Arab print media at the time:
• The Japanese Red Army history in Bekaa Valley, Lebanon (1997)
• An in-depth survey of separatist militant ethnic groups inside Iran (1996)
• The safe havens of Turkey's separatist PKK elements in Syria (1998)
• A series of reports identifying a new emerging phenomenon in Arab politics, where smaller and ‘peripheral’ Arab states in the 1990s began challenging the traditional hegemony of large Arab countries in economy, media outreach, and international relations (1999). Mr. Quraishi's work in this area, published in Arabic, was probably one of the first pointers to this new development.
He worked for Middle East's two main Arabic-language television news networks: as the Pakistan correspondent and analyst for the Qatar-based Aljazeera satellite television news network during the Afghanistan war in 2001, and later as the Pakistan and Central Asia producer and correspondent for the Abu Dhabi Satellite News Television. Even today, Ahmed is probably the only non-Arab TV journalist to have done on-camera work in Arabic for the two networks.
He was accredited to the Kuwaiti Government to work for six months in 1995 as a principal researcher for the documentary Heart of the Storm, an exclusive private production for Britain’s Channel Four television.
Pakistani Politics – between ecstasy and abyss of despair:
Ahmed urges all to stand for Pakistani nationalism, or what he calls PakNationalism, and shun provincialism. He says that we carry forward a legacy, we have been the custodians of the Mughal Empire and we need to act like a responsible and proud people. He feels that it is the duty of the state to instill pride in its people by giving them a vision to pursue. Ahmed, an ardent advocate of guided governance as a more meaningful form of governance, holds high regard for General Ayub, General Zia ul Haq and even Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. He praises Bhutto’s contributions for the nuclear program but laments him for letting go of East Pakistan.
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Ahmed Quraishi finds dictatorship not-so-bad, given the defective electoral system and other loopholes in the Pakistani political system. Ahmed says that “All great achievements in governance and statehood have been done by strong, compassionate, committed leaders and not democratic leaders. These include Napoleon Bonaparte, George Washington (elected later as a democratic leader but initially established himself as a dictator), Cromwell and Bismarck.”
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He recommends a strong federal government with smaller, non-ethnic based provinces; for he believes that it is high time that we abolish ethnic lines. USA, for once, has not even a single state which stands for ethnicity though formed on ethnic grounds. He calls for a complete re-construction of the political system. Ahmed opines that educated, clean-minded and nonpolitical Pakistanis need to borrow assistance from the Military in order to put in place a new system.
On the international front, he praises Saddam for transforming Iraq into a vibrant state, for until the Iran Iraq war took place Iraq was the most enlightened and vibrant nation in the entire Middle East. He also praises Vladimir Putin for doing a great job. He compares him with Musharraf and says that he succeeded where Musharraf failed. When Putin became the President of Russia, Russia was penetrated and deeply influenced by UK and USA. He asked the media to behave in a patriotic manner and instilled pride in Russians. Today, Putin is the most popular man in Russia. On the Contrary, General Musharraf trusted the United States too much.
Ahmed appreciates the leadership of China, Singapore and South Korea.
He appreciates Imran Khan for his social work and also appreciates the ‘Citizen Police Liaison Committee’ (CPLC) formed in Sind. He urges the youth to play their role, all sorts of grass root work awaits them. Referring to his childhood hero, he mentions about ‘Haji Abdul Qadir Al Hussaini’ who died fighting the British occupation and Zionist groups in Palestine. He belonged to Al-Quds and was a true charismatic leader; he gave a hard time to the occupiers of Palestine.
Exile on Main Street
Ahmed Quraishi – on the personal front:
A great player of chess and a more-than-true lover of computer strategy games; Ahmed also loves cats and dogs to be kept as pets. He loves Arabic poetry and has recently started to enjoy Iqbal’s poetry as well. He finds Arabic and Persian Music really soothing.
Ahmed Quraishi appreciates Daily Times and The News International. He says that the choice of articles at daily times reflects cultured journalism. But he finds what he calls the ‘self-defeating liberalism’ of the paper abhorring because liberalism should not come to mean hating your own nation and culture.
In international publications, he is a great fan of Thomas Freidman and Maureen Daud, both writing for the NYT; the former in serious writing and latter in sarcastic writing.
Among local columnists he likes the writings of Shireen Mazari.
Breach of Trust
Ahmed Quraishi
![Ahmed Quraishi]()
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