Shahid Masood

Shahid Masood is a Pakistani columnist and political analyst who hosts the talk show Live with Dr. Shahid Masood on GNN.

He is known for his series End of Time on ARY.

Previously, he served as Group executive director of Geo TV and senior Executive Director of ARY Digital Network.

Masood became affiliated with the media in 2001.

He initially served as the senior Executive Director of ARY Digital Network, where he served as the chief of ARY One World (now known as ARY News), and hosted the show Views on News.

In a 2004 interview to Arab News, Masood said that his father was a civil engineer in Saudi Arabia who worked there for 15 years while, his mother is a teacher.

According to him, he spent his childhood in Taif and Riyadh.

For seven years, he went to the Pakistan International School in Riyadh.

According to Arab News, He is married and has two daughters and a son.

Two of his younger brothers were born in Saudi Arabia so the country is close to him.

He is a medical doctor by profession.

He received an MBBS degree from Jinnah Sindh Medical University.

Masood did his major in International Relations and Defence Studies from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

Masood also had presented documentary on Islamic eschatology entitled End of Time: The Hidden Truth in 2004 from ARY News.

In 2005, Masood received a scholarship with CNN.

He also carried out coverage of the three wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon.

In 2007, Masood joined Geo TV as its Group Executive Director where he hosted the TV show Meray Mutabaq.

In 2008, he was briefly appointed as the managing director and chairman of Pakistan Television Corporation and also served as the special assistant to then-Prime Minister of Pakistan Yousaf Raza Gillani with the status of a minister of state in the Gillani ministry.

Masood was born to a Pashtun-Kakazai family in Karachi.

In June 2008, Masood was appointed as the Chairman of Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) with the additional charge of Managing Director at PTV on a two-year contract.

However, in November 2008 he resigned from his position as chairman and managing director of PTV.

Following the resignation, he was appointed as special assistant to the then-Prime Minister of Pakistan Yousaf Raza Gillani with the status of a minister.

According to Daily Times, Masood was asked to resign from PTV by the then-President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari.

According to Dawn, this came following mounting tensions between Masood and the then-Minister of Information Sherry Rehman when the former refused to take back deputy managing director PTV Shahid Nadeem and cancelled his reinstatement orders.

Masood also suspended PTV director administration and personnel, and issued him a show-cause notice for complying with the prime minister's orders and allowing Nadeem to rejoin the organization as deputy MD. Ministry of Information was also dissatisfied by the audit of PTV under Masood's chairmanship and his decision to increase salaries of PTV staff at the time of a financial crunch.

Masood was reportedly drawing a monthly salary of ₨850,000 and was appointed without a consultation with Minister of Information.

Masood was supposed to pay six months' salary to PTV in case of resigning as per contract terms, which however was waived by the then-prime minister.

Masood again joined Geo News and Meray Mutabiq in November 2008 before shifting to Views on News on ARY News in 2010.

In 2010, Express Tribune reported that a Karachi resident filed a petition against Masood and asked the court to take action against him for encouraging cultural hatred through his TV show.

Masood started hosting his current affairs show Shahid Nama on Express News in 2011.

The show followed a similar pattern to his earlier current affairs and politics.

Before General Election 2013, Masood joined Royal News for the election coverage.

In December 2013, he joined Jaag TV (formerly CNBC Pakistan) where he hosted his show Live with Dr. Shahid Masood.

In 2013, Dawn reported that an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan ordered Masood to telecast an apology for telecasting derogatory remarks on the judiciary after which Masood submitted written apologies before the court.

In 2014, he joined News One (Pakistani TV channel) and started a show Live with Dr. Shahid Masood, as a guest journalist.

He then refreshed and represented them as 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.

The show then shifted to ARY News in February 2016, and then on Bol News from late 2016 till February 2017.

In March 2016, Finance Minister of Pakistan Ishaq Dar sent a legal notice to Masood for allegedly leveling baseless allegations in his TV programme and demanded that Masood offer an apology and pay ₨1 billion compensation.

The show then returned to News One (Pakistani TV channel) on 14 February 2017.

In 2019 he left News One (Pakistani TV channel) and joined GNN News as President where he hosts the show "Live With Dr Shahid Masood".