Ishtiaq Ahmed is a political scientist and author. In 2007, he retired as a professor from Stockholm University, Sweden. He is an honorary senior fellow of the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore.

Ahmed’s research interests include political Islam, ethnicity and nationalism, human and minority rights, and partition studies. His book, Pakistan, a Garrison State: Origins, Evolution, Consequences, pioneered a new framework to understand Pakistan. Ahmed also penned The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed: Unravelling the 1947 Tragedy through Secret British Reports and First-Person Accounts, which won many awards including the best non-fiction book award in 2013 at both the Karachi and Lahore literary festivals. His latest work, Jinnah: His Successes, Failures and Role in History, won the best English non-fiction book award at the Valley of Words 2021 literary and cultural festival in India.