Shahid Masood is a Pakistani political commentator and columnist who hosts the GNN discussion show Live with Dr. Shahid Masood. He is best known for his ARY series End of Time.
Early Life and Education
Masood was born in Karachi to a Pashtun-Kakazai family. Masood stated in a 2004 interview with Arab News that his father was a civil engineer in Saudi Arabia for 15 years, and his mother is a teacher. He claims to have spent his childhood in Taif and Riyadh. He attended the Pakistan International School in Riyadh for seven years.
He is a medical doctor by profession. He earned his MBBS from Jinnah Sindh Medical University.
Masood graduated from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy with a degree in International Relations and Defence Studies.
Personal Life
According to Arab News, Masood is married and has two girls and a son.
Career
Masood became associated with the media in 2001. He began his career as the senior Executive Director of ARY Digital Network, where he led ARY One World (now ARY News) and hosted the show Views on News.
Masood earned a CNN scholarship in 2005. He also covered the three wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Lebanon. Masood joined Geo TV as Group Executive Director in 2007, where he hosted the TV show Meray Mutabaq.
Masood was appointed Chairman of Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) with the additional charge of Managing Director at PTV for a two-year term in June 2008. However, he resigned from his post as chairman and managing director of PTV in November 2008. Following his departure, he was appointed as a ministerial special assistant to Pakistan’s then-Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani.
According to the Daily Times, Masood was ordered to quit PTV by Pakistan’s then-President Asif Ali Zardari. According to Dawn, this followed rising tensions between Masood and then-Minister of Information Sherry Rehman after the former declined to replace PTV deputy managing director Shahid Nadeem and cancelled his reinstatement orders. Masood also suspended PTV’s director of administration and personnel and issued him a show-cause notice for following the prime minister’s orders and allowed Nadeem to rejoin the organisation as deputy MD. The Ministry of Information was also upset with the audit of PTV during Masood’s presidency and his decision to raise PTV personnel salaries during a financial crisis. Masood was reportedly paid Rs. 850,000 per month and selected without consulting the Minister of Information. Masood was meant to pay PTV six months’ salary if he resigned under contract terms, but the then-prime minister dismissed that requirement.
Masood returned to Geo News and Meray Mutabiq in November 2008 before moving to ARY News’ Views on News in 2010. In 2011, Masood began hosting his current affairs show Shahid Nama on Express News. The show followed a similar format to his previous current affairs and political shows. Masood joined Royal News for election coverage prior to the 2013 General Election. He joined Jaag TV (previously CNBC Pakistan) in December 2013, where he hosted his show Live with Dr. Shahid Masood.
As a guest journalist, he joined News One (Pakistani TV channel) in 2014 and started a show called Live with Dr. Shahid Masood. After that, the show moved to ARY News in February 2016, and subsequently to Bol News from late 2016 until February 2017. On 14 February 2017, the show returned to News One (a Pakistani television station).
Masood also presented an ARY News documentary on Islamic eschatology called End of Time: The Hidden Truth in 2004. The Lost Chapters from News One (Pakistani TV channel) in 2015, Final Call from ARY News in 2016, and The Moment from News One (Pakistani TV channel) in 2017.
In 2019, he left News One (a Pakistani TV channel) and became President of GNN News, where he hosted the show “Live With Dr Shahid Masood.”
Controversies
According to the Express Tribune, a Karachi resident petitioned the court in 2010 to take action against Masood for inciting cultural hatred through his TV show.
According to Dawn, an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan ordered Masood to broadcast an apology for making insulting remarks about the judiciary, after which Masood filed written apologies to the court.
In March 2016, Pakistan’s Finance Minister, Ishaq Dar, sent a legal notice to Masood for allegedly making unsubstantiated claims in his TV show and requested that Masood apologise and pay Rs. 1 billion in compensation.
PEMRA placed a 45-day suspension on Shahid Masood’s show on ARY News in August 2016 after Masood said in a broadcast that the top justice of the Sindh High Court took a bribe and then failed to fulfil his commitments. During the 45-day term, he was also barred from appearing on any other TV show.
In January 2017, Ishaq Dar sent Bol News another legal complaint demanding an apology for false and defamatory allegations made on Masood’s broadcast on January 24, 2017.
On February 13, PEMRA decided to prohibit his show for 30 days and imposed a Rs. 1 million punishment on the station for making unsubstantiated claims against the federal finance and defence ministers.
In March 2018, the JIT ruled that Masood’s report on the Zainab murder case was fraudulent and without foundation, and the Supreme Court barred him from holding his TV show for three months. On News One on June 21, 2018, he resumed hosting the show.
Arrest
The FIA arrested him in the PTV corruption investigation in November 2018.
Books
- Views on News, Mavra, Lahore, 2004, 238 p. Current political and social topics, as well as the author’s opinions, were aired in a discussion program broadcast on the ARY Digital channel.
- End of Time, Mavra, Lahore, 2005, 136 p. Khalid Sharif’s transcription of a documentary series dealing with small and significant signals of the end of the world or end of times: Imam Mahdi, the return of Jesus, Armageddon, Dajjal, and other issues.