‘Dr Baqai’s works reveal poor foreign policy-making’

Islamabad : Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed has said that the essence of Prof Huma Baqai’s book “Collected works on foreign affairs and security policy” was that it had been written with an open mind without any pre-conceived notions and that it sought truth from facts instead of mere opinions.

Mr Mushahid was speaking at launch of the book organised by Institute of Regional Studies (IRS) here Saturday. The Senator added that the era covered in the book was extremely significant as the instances quoted therein revealed absence of institutionalised decision-making as a major underlying factor behind poor policy-making over the years.

Senior journalist Zahid Hussain observed that Dr Baqai produced a seminal book capturing the past six years of international relations that witnessed some monumental developments. He continued that the book was a very timely addition to the contemporary discourse as it also shed ample light on the return of the Taliban to power as well as the changing dynamics of the Pak-US ties.

Former diplomat Naghmana Hashmi said that the book was an excellent source to understand the recent developments in foreign affairs and offered a detailed analysis of the geopolitical, geo-economic and geo-strategic developments that affected Pakistan. Nadeem Riyaz, Pr­es­ident, IRS, congratulated the author saying that its most laudable aspect was its readability. Dr Baqai detailed various stages of data collection during the writing of the book and commented that the intellectually-starved youth of Pakistan was direly in need of a direction. During the event, the discussants complimented Dr Baqai for putting together a much needed addition to the discourse on Pakistan’s foreign relations and some of the most pertinent nuances of security policy.