Wajahat Saeed Khan

Wajahat Saeed Khan (Wajahat S. Khan) is a multimedia journalist based in Islamabad, Pakistan. He has produced and anchored for Pakistan’s major networks and reported for international new channels as well as local and regional publications. Khan has also produced and reported from Afghanistan and India and focuses on security, conflict and transparency-related issues. He is currently the Pakistan Correspondent for NBC News, an anchor for Dunya News, and the editor of The Bureau of Investigative Reporting.^[1]

Early life and Education

Khan was born in Quetta, Balochistan and was schooled at the Karachi Grammar School where he was the editor of the school magazine, The Grammarian. He majored in Political Science and History from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor where he reported for and edited The Michigan Daily. He is also the first Pakistani to have been nominated as a fellow at Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, Harvard University.^[2]

Career

Khan's broadcast career started when electronic media was deregulated in Pakistan in the early 2000s by the regime of General (retired) Pervez Musharraf. Khan joined the country's largest media house, the Jang Group of Newspapers/Geo News, as Manager of News Product Development and Strategy before switching to news production. He was at Geo News, the country's primary cable news network, from 2003-2007. He then helped launch Dawn News in 2007 where he became the first Pakistani to produce an investigative series from India for his show "Talk Back". Khan also produced a documentary series on the Pakistani military, "We Are Soldiers", which was eventually banned by Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority.^[3]

Khan was at Dawn News till 2010. He resigned from the channel when Dawn News management decided to convert the language format of the channel from English to Urdu, due to financial losses.^[4]

In 2011, Khan was nominated as a Goldsmith Fellow by the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, Harvard University. As the first Pakistani, and the youngest fellow, at the Shorenstein Center, Khan authored a study about the rise of militancy and hate content on Pakistani social media.^[5]

From 2012 till 2013, Khan switched languages and conducted "Ikhtilaf" ["Opposition"], an interview series on AAJ TV.^[6][7][8]

In 2013, he joined The Jang Group of Newspapers/Geo News again, but in the new capacity of the National Security Editor of Pakistan's largest media house. His writings at The News/Jang focused on the Pakistani military.^[9]

In 2015, he was appointed the Executive Vice President and Senior Anchorperson at BOL Network for a few months handling security reporting^[10][11] before joining Dunya News as an Anchor for a one on one show called "Mahaz" ^[12]

Khan is also the founder and editor of The Bureau of Investigative Reporting, a not-for-profit reporting collective which pursues journalism for the public benefit and covers issues normally not covered by the mainstream media in Pakistan.^[13]

Khan did a short stint for CNN in 2011-12, before moving on to produce and then correspond for NBC News from Islamabad and Kabul.^[14] This position of NBC Correspondent and producer he holds currently along with his position at Dunya News.

References