2013 PAKISTAN-US JOURNALISTS EXCHANGE
MARCH 6 –23, 2013
Participant Biographies-Pakistani Journalists
Muhammad Imran Ahmed Chief Reporter, Roznama (Daily) Dunya Karachi, Karachi
Muhammad Imran Ahmed has been associated with Roznama Dunya Karachi since June 2012 as chief reporter. Roznama Dunya Karachi has become one of the top emerging Urdu newspapers in Pakistan in a short period of time, simultaneously publishing from Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad and Sargodha. Mr. Ahmed and the team of professionals he leads are responsible for covering all aspects of the news from ethnic, religious, linguistic and political topics to the vulnerable security situation in Karachi while executing them under stringent deadlines. He is also responsible for making editorial decisions on sensitive news and how to cover important news events.
Before joining the Dunya Media Group, Mr. Ahmed worked as bureau chief of Express Media Group’s Urdu TV channel in Karachi from December 2006 to June 2012. He reported extensively on political and security situations in Karachi such as the Lyari Gang War, extortion, and terrorist activities like the major attack on the Mehran Naval Airbase which he covered live as the first to break the news on his channel.
Prior to becoming an electronic media journalist, Mr. Ahmed was a print media journalist associated with one of the largest newspapers in Pakistan, the Daily Express in Karachi. He served in different capacities from trainee reporter to senior reporter to chief reporter. He was among the youngest chief reporters in the city at that time working for one of the most widely- read Urdu newspapers. There he led his team and broke many exclusive stories such as the suicide attacks on French engineers at the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi and the attack on American diplomat David Foey near the Marriot Hotel. He also covered political developments like the military coup against former Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif.
Throughout his career Mr. Ahmed has interviewed Former President General Pervez Musharraf, Major General Salahuddin Satti, Former Director General Sindh of the Pakistan Rangers, and many other federal and provincial government officials, heads of political parties, and foreign dignitaries. He won the National Reconstruction Bureau Award for best local bodies reporting and was invited by the Pakistan Rangers to deliver lectures on coordination and cooperation between media and law enforcement agencies under prevailing security environments in January 2012. He serves as senior joint secretary of the Karachi Union of Journalists, member of the Association of Television Media Journalists, member of the Karachi Press Club, and member of the Pakistan Arts Council. Mr. Ahmed obtained his master’s degree in mass communication from Karachi University and graduated from Government College Nazimabad Karachi.
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Pakistan-US Journalists Exchange, East-West Center, 1601 East-West Road, Honolulu, Hawaii 96848-1601 Telephone: 808-944-7384; Fax: 808-944-7600; [email protected]; EastWestCenter.org/seminars The East-West Center promotes better relations and understanding among the people and nations of the United States, Asia, and the Pacific through cooperative study, research, and dialogue. Pakistan-US Journalists Exchange Participant Biographies, page 2 of 6
Najia Ashar Senior Anchor/Producer, Geo Television Network, Karachi
Ms. Najia Ashar is a senior anchor/producer currently associated with Geo News, Pakistan’s most watched private news channel. Geo News is a part of the Geo Television Network, which is owned by the Jang Group, a reputable media group of Pakistan. Ms. Ashar joined Geo News in January 2004, initially working in Dubai. She now anchors daily mainstream news bulletins in Karachi. Ms. Ashar also produced and hosted the Yeh Hai Pakistan daily news program in 2007, highlighting stories and events from the four provinces of Pakistan, and the program NAZIM HAZIR HO which interviews city, district and town administrators from different areas of the country. Besides news bulletins and programs she produced live shows with guests from all walks of life.
Before joining Geo News Ms. Ashar worked for Pakistan Television Network as an Anchor/Host from 2003 to 2004. She hosted Night Time Transmission, conducted a daily program The Parliamentary Note Book and also hosted Cultural Round Up, a weekly program for PTV World.
As a journalist, Ms. Ashar reported and covered various live historical events such as the Pakistan earthquake (2005), assassination of Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (2007), US presidential election (2008), Pakistan general elections (2008), Mumbai attacks (2008), Pakistan floods (2010), Abbottabad operation (2011), attack on Malala Yousafzai (2012), etc. She has received a number of journalism honors from universities, media organizations and journalist associations of Pakistan for her work in the media industry. Ms. Ashar has been an active member of the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA), South Asian Women in Media (SAWM) and Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ).
Ms. Ashar received her master’s degree from the Department of International Relations at the University of Karachi and obtained her BA with honors in international relations, mass communication and sociology from Karachi University.
Abdul Ghani Kakar Chief Investigative Reporter, Daily Awam, Quetta, Balochistan
Mr. Abdul Ghani Kakar is an investigative journalist in Balochistan currently serving as a chief investigative reporter for the Urdu language newspaper the Daily Awam, and for its sister English paper, the Daily Public. He is a senior correspondent for the Washington-based Central Asia Online, a USCENTCOM-based news service which highlights movements toward greater regional stability through bilateral and multilateral cooperative arrangements.
Mr. Kakar covers national and international political and social issues, crime, and culture beats, and has reported extensively on the war against terror, suicide bombing, IEDs, and militancy issues in the region. He worked with Mr. Willis Witter, the foreign desk editor of the Washington Times, accompanying him while covering the live events of the strike on Afghanistan against the Taliban and Al-Qaida, and visited the Kabul, Jalalabad, Kandahar, Helmand, Hiraat, Ghazni, and Shorawak provinces of Afghanistan. He has also traveled extensively throughout Balochistan for news coverage.
Mr. Kakar is affiliated with various literary and media organizations and is an active member of the media representative bodies. He served as a senior vice president of the Balochistan Union of Journalists and president of the Balochistan Newspapers Workers Union for its previous tenure. Previously, Mr. Kakar served as bureau chief for ARY One World Television, Balochistan, and as producer and anchor of the current affairs program, Nun-SABA, for a Pashto Television station, Pakistan-US Journalists Exchange Participant Biographies, page 3 of 6
Shamshad. He previously hosted and remains responsible for generating content for a Pashto TV Kabul program (JIRGA) for its Quetta station.
Mr. Kakar graduated from the University of Balochistan, Quetta with a master’s in mass communication and has certificates in political and legal reporting. He also completed a course in Advanced Newspaper Management from the International Institute of Journalism, and has certificates for advanced English (CAE) and a diploma in computer software, hardware, disc operating systems, web developing and multimedia editing.
Nisar Ali Khokhar Special Correspondent, KTN News TV, Hyderabad
Mr. Nisar Ali Khokhar is a mid-career journalist and author of two books in the Sindhi language of Pakistan. He is working as a special correspondent with a leading and vibrant local and regional Sindhi media house, KTN News. He contributes a weekly column in the largest circulated Sindhi Daily newspaper, Kawish, which is published by the same media house.
Mr. Khokhar has directed and produced several socio-political talk shows and documentaries for KTN News. These documentaries envisage the wide-ranging and burning issues of socio-political concerns, human rights, child labor, religious extremism, indigenous secular Sufism, honor killing, water crisis, etc. His documentaries and talks shows were thrice awarded in the annual KTN award. He also received the Women Courage Award from Oxfam and allied organization SDS for best reporting in 2006.
Mr. Khokhar was associated with Internews Network International as mentor/trainer in 2010, where he trained radio-journalists who were assigned to cover the flood in Sindh. He joined the BBC Urdu service in 2005 as a radio/online producer based at Sukkur where his responsibility was to cover the rural areas of Pakistan and Sindh. He resigned from the BBC in 2010 due to his serious concerns about the lack of coverage of regional and local issues in Sindh and Pakistan.
Mr. Khokhar also contributes to the leading English publishing houses of Pakistan. However, his forte is Sindhi media which influences Sindhi viewers and readers since it focuses exclusively on the issues of Sindh.
Mr. Khokhar is a talented orator who delivers scholarly research papers and lectures on several socio-political issues in the international and national organization and NGOs. He was part of the South Asian Assembly of Change Makers panel in 2006 at Colombo and was also among the panelists of the International Conference on honour killing organized by the British Council of Pakistan, Karachi, in 2005.
Ikram Ullah Moomand Editor-in-Charge, Editorial Page, Daily AAJ Urdu, Peshawar
Ikram Ullah Moomand has been editor-in-charge of the editorial page at the Daily AAJ since 2002. The Daily AAJ is the most circulated newspaper in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, FATA, Afghanistan, UAE. It is published simultaneously from Peshawar, Abbott Abad, Islamabad and Karachi. His role in the organization is to make editorial policy and to direct more than 30 columnists on various issues. He is also responsible for selecting, editing, and publishing materials. Mr. Moomand joined the Daily AAJ in 2000 as sub-editor and managed news forums on various social and economic problems in different areas.
Pakistan-US Journalists Exchange Participant Biographies, page 4 of 6
Mr. Moomand is the founding editor of the Daily AAJ’s health page and worked for two years as in-charge of the page. He meanwhile translated English articles to Urdu for the editorial page. In 2006 he started writing regular columns under the title TEER KAMAN. Some of his columns are available on the AAJ website (www.dailyaaj.com.pk).
Previously Mr. Moomand conducted panel interviews and prepared features for Campus Radio (Peshawar University). He is also a member of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), Khyber Union of Journalists and Peshawar Press Club.
Mr. Moomand received his master’s degree in journalism from Peshawar University in 1998. He earned his BA from the Government Post Graduate College Mardan in 1995. He received a diploma in computer sciences from PETROMAN Computer Training Institute and Technical Board in Peshawar and completed a 35-day course on radio reporting with Internews.
Sadia Nasir Reporter, Current Affairs Department, Pakistan Television (PTV), Islamabad
Ms. Sadia Nasir is a reporter in the News and Current Affairs Department of Pakistan Television (PTV) Islamabad. Before joining PTV, Ms. Nasir worked as reporter and anchorperson in the emerging and proliferating private media industry including Dunya News and AAJ Television. Her main responsibilities included the coverage of political and current affairs events. She also represented Pakistan in the Common Wealth Youth Forum held at Kampala in 2007.
Ms. Nasir received her master of arts in international relations at the International Islamic University, Islamabad. During her studies she presented her research on American political culture, the role of media in American politics, the Kashmir issue, Afghanistan under the Taliban, Indo-US strategic partnership, Pakistan’s nuclear program, and new world order after 9/11. She has also published many feature articles on current affairs and Pakistan’s domestic political scenarios for local media. She is the member of the National Press Club, Islamabad and many other media representative bodies.
Shumaila Noreen Reporter/Sub-editor, Associated Press Pakistan, Islamabad
Ms. Shumaila Noreen is a journalist in the English News Section of the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) located at Islamabad. The Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) is the premier news agency of Pakistan and is mandated to ensure coverage of all important developments and events on diverse fronts within the country and abroad with an objective professional approach. Since 2007, she has been working at APP as a reporter/sub-editor and covering various subjects including parliament, education, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), women, human rights and other social issues. She wrote several features and has largely done creative work that was published in all leading newspapers.
Ms. Noreen has covered important events, conferences, seminars, discussions and government meetings, which gave her a unique perspective to form her opinions on issues affecting society. She has covered the devastation and displacement due to earthquakes and floods and has visited the sites.
She has attended several workshops at the national level including the Media and Civil Society Collaboration Workshop arranged by the Pakistan Coalition for Education (PCE) in September 2010; Orientation of Media Persons on Education For All by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and UNESCO in September 2009; and Men for Ending Violence Against Women by Pakistan-US Journalists Exchange Participant Biographies, page 5 of 6
the White Ribbon Campaign and British High Commission in January 2012. She has recently visited China through the Embassy of China as part of a five-journalist delegation under a programme to promote Pakistan-China ties through media.
Ms. Noreen earned her master’s in English (linguistics and literature) from Foundation University of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Fauji Foundation) located at New Lalazar in 2005. She has also obtained a diploma in textile designing and glass painting from Gandhara Art Gallery (Rawalpindi) and a computer diploma from Compusoft Institute of IT.
Shahid Rind Bureau Chief, ARY News Quetta, Balochistan
Shahid Rind is currently bureau chief of Pakistan’s major national news and current affairs TV station ARY NEWS, based in Quetta, Balochistan. Mr. Rind has more than 7 years experience in journalism. He is an active member of Press Club Quetta, and Balochistan Union of Journalists. He has also worked with Samaa TV in Quetta and later in Karachi. He was part of the Samaa TV team that covered the natural disaster in Balochistan in 2008.
Muhammad Salman Staff Reporter, Daily Nawa.i.Waqt, Peshawar
Mr. Muhammad Salman has been a staff reporter for the Daily Nawa.i.Waqt since 2007. The Daily Nawa.i.Waqt is one of the oldest and most popular Urdu newspapers in Pakistan and began publishing before the independence of Pakistan. As a reporter, Mr. Salman is interested in social sectors to highlight social issues. He worked for the Daily Ausaf in the Peshawar bureau as a reporter from 2003 to 2005 and also worked for the Online International News Network for one year in 2001.
In 2004 Mr. Salman was selected for the Winds of Change Media Perception program by the British Council Pakistan. He is a member of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, the Khyber Union of Journalists and the Peshawar Press Club.
Mr. Salman received his master’s degree in journalism and mass communication in 2003, his BA from Government Superior Science College in 1998 and his higher secondary school certificate from Municipal Inter College in 1996. He attended a five-day training workshop on safety reporting organized by Alfred Friendly Press Fellowships in Karachi as well as a three-day public affairs reporting workshop by Internews Network last year.
Mr. Pervaiz Shaukat Senior Reporter, Daily Jang, and President, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, Islamabad
Pervaiz Shaukat was elected president of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) in 2011 and will remain in this position for three terms. He has also remained president of Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists and secretary of the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Press Club in addition to serving at PFUJ. In addition to these positions, Mr. Shaukat is a senior reporter for the Daily Jang, Pakistan’s oldest Urdu daily newspaper with a national circulation of more than 800,000 copies per day.
Mr. Shaukat has over two decades of experience in journalism as well as unionism. Throughout his career he has strived for the welfare of journalists, their wages, and their professional betterment and security. Pakistan-US Journalists Exchange Participant Biographies, page 6 of 6
For his service to journalism in Pakistan, Mr. Shaukat has been nominated for the highest civilian award, Tamgha-I-Imtiaz, which is a state-organized Medal of Excellence. He will be presented with the award in March 2013.
Sana Saif Tirmazee Reporter, Dawnnews TV, Lahore
Sana Saif Tirmazee has been working with Dawnnews Television as education and health reporter for the past four years. In addition to these fields, she has covered social, environmental, political, cultural, and crime and court related issues. When she started her career with Dawnnews Television in 2008 it was the only English language news channel in Pakistan. She was among the few team members who stayed at Dawnnews during its transition from English to an Urdu language news channel. The channel has given her ample opportunities to explore her capabilities, not only as a reporter, but as an anchor, producer and assignment editor as well.
Besides television news reporting, Ms. Tirmazee has been writing articles for different news dailies including Dawn and The Post as free-lance. As a student of mass communication at Kinnaird College for Women, she contributed to The Nation’s special supplement Nation on Campus, a collaboration of the paper and Kinnaird Media School. She also taught journalism at the Kinnaird Media School as a junior lecturer. Ms. Tirmazee was recently awarded third prize in a competition held under the auspices of UNICEF and The Media Foundation for reporting on the polio virus in Pakistan.
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