SHAFIQ AHMAD Email: [email protected] Phones: (cell) +92 300 9597043 Date of Birth: October 15, 1968 Address: House 9-A, Street 9, Fazaia Colony, Islamabad Expressway, Rawalpindi. Citizenship: Pakistan – Married, with three children.
PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY
Shafiq Ahmad is high caliber media professional with unique and rich experience in journalism, strategic communications, media and public relations management, communication for development and social change, advocacy and research. He has hands on expertise in designing and implementing media, research and development sector projects. He worked for national and international organizations in the field of media and public relations and journalism and has established himself as a brand name in PR & journalism. He has also worked on projects funded USAID-FATA (tribal districts) Capacity Building Project, GIZ Malakand Reconstruction Project. Besides he served as Correspondent for Times Now TV, the top English news channel of Times of India group, for nine years and he has also worked with Geo TV (English segment). While for print media, he has worked for the top Pakistani investigative English magazine Herald and Dawn newspaper. He also remained associated for seven years as country in-charge of Switzerland research institute. He is fluent in English, Urdu and Pashto and can also communicate in Persian and Punjabi languages.
WORK EXPERIENCE Year / Organizations Experience
Aug 2018 - April 30, 2019 Worked as a Special Correspondent with Indus TV, the first Pakistani Special Correspondent English news channel targeting global audience. I was based at its Indus News Islamabad Bureau and my responsibilities were writing news on Islamabad, Pakistan. major happenings in The Capital and its surroundings to the head office in Lahore and checking the editing quality of packages. Besides, I produced short documentaries/feature stories including writing scripts and also editing and checking the scripts of my junior colleagues.
Jan 2009 - Dec 31, 2017 Worked as in-charge Correspondent based in Islamabad, but Correspondent/Consultant covered news of the whole country, including the volatile regions of Times Now TV the country’s north and former tribal areas. My main responsibility Islamabad, Pakistan. was to keep vigil on the news breaking and give audio (phono) and video comments on the current issues. I used to send important stories on daily bases to the main desk in Mumbai. Conduct small interviews with analysts and general people and also coordinate with the Times Now for its special talks shows. For Times Now, I have interviewed former president Gen (retd) Pervaiz Musharraf, PTI Chief Imran Khan, former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, besides several ministers and leaders of many political and religio-political parties.
April 2007 - Jan 2009 Produced and gathered TV news and feature packages and Correspondent coordinated with reporters based in other cities and towns of KPK Geo TV English for news and news packages and then sending them to the main Peshawar, newsroom in Karachi. Pakistan.
2001 - 2019 Currently I appear in different TV channels including state-run Freelance Journalist English and Urdu news channel - PTV World and PTV News, Pashto news channels AVT Khyber and Mashriq TV and popular Urdu digital channel DBTV as political and international affairs analyst. Besides I write for Pakistani magazines on regular basis. In 2019 and 2018, I produced two documentaries each on Indian- administered Kashmir on the occasion of Solidarity Day with Kashmiris, which were screened at the Presidency in Islamabad. Besides, I have worked for several international television channels including, CNN, RTL of Germany and SBS of Australia. For several years I worked as local producer with Quicksilver Media, UK, which produces current affairs documentaries for major international broadcasters including BBC, Channel 4 and Aljazeera English. I was a local producer of a documentary Murder in God’s name (2012), which has won two international awards. In the year 2015, I got the opportunity to work with Tom Robbers, a multi- award including Oscar winning film director and founder of October Film, London, for his documentary on Polio – Every Last Child, which was funded by Bill Gates Foundation. Besides, I have also worked as a filed producer in the Cinema documentary "Where is in the world Osama Bin Laden" of Oscar nominee Morgan Spurlock, the US writer and documentary film-maker. While in print media, I have been contributing for The News, the large circulated English daily of Pakistan and Urdu online magazine Jedojehad. I have so far written several feature/news stories for Kashmir Narrator magazine, AFP, German daily Bild, Swdedish daily Aftonbladet, Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), Geographical Magazine of London, Cutting Edge magazine of Lahore and online magazine Viewpoint.
Jan 2007- April 2007 Worked for Pakistan’s prestigious investigative monthly magazine, Staff Reporter Herald, as a reporter from Peshawar. For Herald, I have given a Herald magazine cover story and several investigative stories including the spillover Peshawar, Pakistan. of Taliban from the semi-autonomous tribal region to the southern and northern districts of the Kyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan and a suicide bombers training camp on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. I also broke the story of the involvement of a federal minister in human smuggling to European countries. That story was re-printed in several Scandinavian countries as the former minister for minorities Mushtaq Victor had sent as many as 25 young boys and at least five women to European countries showing them as his children and wives on different flights. Later, he was arrested by the federal police.
June 2002- Oct 2006 Worked as city’s crime reporter with Dawn. I have written many Reporter stories related to crime, human rights violation, war on terror and Dawn newspaper the activities of law-enforcement agencies including their Peshawar, corruption. Pakistan. Besides, I used to edit and rewrite the news stories of correspondents based in different areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
International NGO/Consultancy Year / Organizations Experience March 2010- July 2014 Prepared and implemented media work plans for USAID-FATA Consultant Media & Advocacy institutional capacity building project. Manage media relations and Stratcom Private Limited, engaged media practitioners and journalists for promotion of peace building initiatives in the tribal districts. Conducted advocacy events Peshawar, Pakistan. with religious scholars, teachers and public intellectuals for promoting development initiatives in the former tribal areas. Supervised and monitored TV, radio productions and publicity material for USAID and GIZ projects. Conducted training workshops for journalists on development and peace journalism. Designed and conducted promotional events for the development projects. Monitored and tracked negative media coverage of the project and framed timely responses to manage crises communications for the project. Pro-actively engaged with media to get positive press for the development projects funded by USAID and GIZ. Developed business for the company, writing technical and financial proposals, researching different topics, develop linkages with government departments, development and corporate sector organization and strong connections with print and electronic media, meetings with donors’ agencies like USAID, GIZ, European Union and other donors.
International NGO Remained associated for seven years as a Country Coordinator with FAST International, a project of the SDC-funded Swiss Peace, NGO March 2001- March 2008 based in Bern, Switzerland. The organization researches the causes Country Coordinator for of wars and conflicts, develops tools for early recognition of tension Pakistan and Afghanistan and formulates conflict-mitigation and peace-building strategies. As Country Coordinator for Pakistan and Afghanistan from March 2001 to March 2008. My responsibilities were to gather salient . news from various regions through field monitors then verify their . credibility and finally upload them in a specific software program, to know the two countries political and economic situations. I was head of the journalists’ team.
EDUCATION
• M.A Journalism, Peshawar University, Peshawar, Pakistan.
PROFESSIONAL TRAINING
• Professional training and workshops in USA, Switzerland, Nepal and Kyrgyzstan.
LANGUAGES & SKILLS
English: (Expert) Urdu: (Expert) Pashto: (Expert) Persian: (Intermediate) Punjabi: (Intermediate)
Computer, Communication, Analytical, Creative thinking, Critical thinking, Decision-making, Teamwork, Time management and Leadership skills.
REFERENCES
1: Naveen Kapoor (Former Director Foreign Desk with Times Now TV) Telephone: +919811772340 Email: [email protected]
2: Ismail Khan, Editor North, Dawn newspaper) Telephone: +923008595868 Email: [email protected]
3: Alexandra Geiser (Former Desk Officer Swiss Peace, Switzerland) Telephone: +41787905039 Email: [email protected]