Raza Rumi

Raza (Ahmad) Rumi is a Pakistani columnist, policy analyst and journalist. Presently, he is a scholar in residence at Ithaca College, U.S.A where he teaches at the Honors Program. Earlier, he was a fellow at New America Foundation (2014); United States Institute of Peace (Sept 2014-March 2015) and a visiting fellow at National Endowment for Democracy. Raza continues to be the consulting editor for weekly The Friday Times, and a senior fellow at the Jinnah Institute in Islamabad.
His writings are published in Foreign Policy, Huffington Post, New York Times, The Diplomat, Fair Observer, CNNand Al Jazeera,Daily O, Scroll India, The Hindu and Indian Express. His columns for the Express Tribune can be accessed here.

Raza holds a bachelor's degree in Economics and master's degree in Social Planning, both from the London School of Economics.

Raza started his career in the Government of Pakistan as an officer of the administrative services. He was Assistant Commissioner, sub divisional magistrate of Murree.

In 2000, he was selected by the United Nations Mission in Kosovo as a Civil Affairs Officer and for other municipal administration assignments.

In 2002, he joined the Asian Development Bank as a Governance Specialist.

In 2008, Raza returned to Pakistan on a sabbatical and joined the The Friday Times as a features editor. Shortly, he was also given the charge of news desk and he was the news and features editor of the publication for a few years. He is still on the editorial board of The Friday Times and works as the consulting/commissioning editor.

Since 2010, Raza has been a regular commentator on Pakistani television. In 2013 he started hosting a current affairs talk show on Capital TV entitled Seedhi Baat. In January 2014 he joined Express News where he was hosting a current affairs show "Khabar Sey Agay".

In 2012, Rumi became director of the Jinnah Institute, a policy think thank.

Rumi is currently serving as a scholar in residence at Ithaca College's School of Humanities and Sciences through 2017.

On 28 March 2014, Raza was attacked by a group of assailants reportedly members of the Taliban-affiliate Lashkar-e-Jhangvi for his anti-LeJ views. Raza survived the attack, but his driver, Mustafa, was killed.

On this incident, the former director of Human Rights Watch wrote: "Miraculously, he emerged unscathed from the hail of gunfire intended for him. Raza is now in a secure location—outside Pakistan. He had no choice but to leave as the authorities felt no embarrassment in letting him know that they could not guarantee his life if he stepped outside his Lahore home. Some weeks later, the police “caught” the would-be-assassins who belong to the dreaded Taliban-affiliate Lahkar-e-Jhangvi. But police custody curtails neither the power of these terrorists nor the impunity with which they kill.."