Mansoor Ali Khan is a Pakistani journalist, television anchor, video blogger, and podcaster.
Family
Mansoor Ali Khan, the son of Shaukat Ali Khan, was born on April 22, 1976. His father, a Punjabi from Lahore, had an electronics business, while his mother is from a Hazara family from Quetta. On his maternal side, he is the great-grandson of Hazara tribal chief Yazdan Khan and the grandson of army general Musa Khan; a nephew of squash player and golfer Hassan Musa and Air-Marshal Sharbat Ali Changezi; and a cousin of Mehdi Hassan Musa, a former Balochistan provincial minister.
Education
Khan graduated from Aitchison College in Lahore in 1995 before attending Government College University, where he majored in political science, history, and English literature in 1999. Khan earned a master’s degree in media studies from the Virtual University of Pakistan in 2020.
Interests
Khan was an ardent swimmer during his studies, competing at the national level.
Career
Khan began his television career in 2007 as a sports journalist and broadcaster for the English-language Dawn News. He worked briefly as a producer and sports show host on CNBC Pakistan before joining the Urdu channel Geo News as a newscaster and anchor in Karachi in October 2008.
During his stint at Geo, he covered the Pakistan Lawyers’ Movement, the 2009 T20 Cricket World Cup, and the 2011 Osama bin Laden operation. In addition, he appeared as a sports correspondent on Star Asia News. In 2012, he came to the United States to cover the U.S. presidential election for WTTW, appearing as an international exchange journalist on Chicago Tonight.
Khan left Geo in December 2014 to work as a content manager and anchorman for the upcoming news channel BOL Network. In the aftermath of the Axact incident, he left the media organisation in August 2015 and made a statement saying that he had joined ARY News as a senior anchorman.
He worked for ARY for a year before moving on to Express News in Islamabad in August 2016, where he hosted To the Point with Mansoor Ali Khan, a political and current affairs talk show that aired during primetime. Khan left Express after nearly six years and joined Samaa TV in May 2022, where he hosted the talk show Meray Sawaal.
In addition to his broadcast appearances, Khan has a YouTube channel devoted to news, politics, and current events.
Controversies
Reham Khan’s false information
Reham Khan refutes allegations that she poisoned Imran Khan in her 2018 memoir. She claims he went to the hospital for drug-related difficulties rather than poisoning. She expresses gratitude to Mansoor Ali Khan for his assistance. According to Reham, Imran’s sister Aleema became furious and called Mansoor, but on a talk show, Mansoor denied everything and called the book’s validity into question.
Online Backlash from Anti-Feminist Organisations
In March 2020, Khan and his family experienced online backlash from anti-feminism organisations when photos of them attending a women’s rights march surfaced on social media. Despite the criticism, Khan stated that he would continue to support the initiative.
Criticism from PTI Supporters
Mansoor frequently criticises Imran Khan and his political party, the PTI, which sparks criticism and harassment from party members and supporters. He sarcastically refers to Imran as “my captain.”
Resignation of a Top Producer
Faisal Rao, a top producer at Express News, resigned in April 2022 because he disagreed with Khan’s political views.
A Leaked Off-Air Segment with Maryam Nawaz
Khan interviewed PML-N political leader Maryam Nawaz for a podcast on his YouTube channel in March 2023, and an off-air segment was later leaked and went viral. In the segment, Khan questioned Maryam about presents she and her father, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, reportedly received from foreign dignitaries while in government, in violation of the laws governing official gifts and the legal process for retaining them. Maryam denied knowing about such presents and said she couldn’t answer Khan’s question without knowing the facts behind the allegations. She asked Khan to keep the conversation private.
The leaked video, which landed Maryam in hot water among opposition legislators, prompted Khan to issue a clarification. Khan condemned the leak as “unethical,” explaining that the portion was excluded because he did not have the interviewee’s approval. Accepting responsibility for the situation, he blamed it on a data breach. Khan’s resignation from his television channel, Samaa TV, in May, and subsequent hiring at Hum News generated speculation that the video leak was the cause of his dismissal from the channel. Khan, on the other hand, refuted these rumours, claiming that he had just quit to pursue a promising career opportunity.
Personal Life
Mansoor Ali Khan is married and has three sons.