Ash-har Quraishi

Ash-har Quraishi is an Emmy Award-winning television journalist, writer and filmmaker with more than a decade of local, international, and investigative reporting experience. He is currently a joint Correspondent for WTTW (PBS Chicago) where he reports for their flagship nightly news magazine show Chicago Tonight and the Chicago News Cooperative where he writes for their website and provides print and online content focused on Chicago for the New York Times. Quraishi is currently working on completing a feature-length documentary about the Arab-American experience in Dearborn, Michigan post 9/11. The film follows Fordson High School's predominantly Arab/Muslim-American football team for the last ten days of their holy month of Ramadan as they practice and play football while fasting. The film is a co-production of North Shore Films and Quraishi Productions, LLC the company he co-founded with his partner/producer and wife Basma Babar-Quraishi. "Fordson" is Quraishi Productions' maiden venture into feature-length documentary filmmaking. Quraishi served as a producer on the film and also wrote and photographed portions of the documentary. The film will premiere at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah in January 2011. Before his posting in Chicago Quraishi spent four years working as the Chief Investigative Reporter for KCTV, the CBS affiliate in Kansas City. His investigative reports there exposed corruption, imprisoned criminals and prompted change in city and state government. A bold investigation into lax airline passenger screening procedures resulted in a federal probe by the Department of Homeland Security and was recognized with a 2009 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award for Investigative Reporting and a Heart of America Award from the Kansas City Press Club. In 2008 he co-hosted election specials from Washington D.C. focused on bilateral relations between the United States and Pakistan for GEO Television - a joint production with America Abroad Media. His reporting has been featured in the New York Times, The PBS NewsHour, The Oprah Winfrey Show and CNN. Prior to KCTV, Quraishi spent more than six years working at CNN. He served as CNN's Islamabad bureau chief/correspondent, responsible for the network's coverage of Pakistan beginning just days after the 9/11 attacks. Quraishi reported extensively on major events in Pakistan and the region, including the Agra Summit, the ongoing conflict between nuclear neighbors India and Pakistan, the floods in Eastern India, the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the religious extremist movement in Pakistan and the clashes along the Line of Control in the disputed region of Kashmir. He reported live from Karachi on the disappearance of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and the bombing of the Protestant International Church in Islamabad. Additionally, he provided live coverage of the first general elections in Pakistan since the 1999 military coup and reported on the lead up to polling day in an award-winning five-part series. Quraishi was the first television correspondent to report the capture of top Al Qaeda operative and 9/11 architect Khalid Shaikh Mohammad in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He was live from the capital as the story unfolded and conducted an exclusive one-on-one interview with Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf following the arrest. Under his leadership the CNN Islamabad bureau became the model for CNN's new digital newsgathering system. Combining videophone technology, compact video cameras and non-linear editing on laptop computers - Quraishi's bureau was the first to produce news using the cutting-edge digital platform. Before his posting in Pakistan, Quraishi was based in Atlanta where he worked in various capacities. He supervised production of the network's premiere long form news program "CNN&TIME" overseeing all aspects of production. He worked as a producer for CNN USA and was instrumental in the launch of CNN's web-based newscast, CNN Quickcast. Prior to working for CNN, Quraishi reported and produced for WGEM - the NBC affiliate in Quincy, IL. His work has been honored with numerous awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association, Investigative Reporters & Editors, The Society of Professional Journalists, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the Press Club of Atlantic City and the South Asian Journalists Association. In 2010 Quraishi was awarded two National Headliner Awards and was an IRE Award finalist. He is a four-time Emmy Award winner and has received five Edward R. Murrow Awards. In 2004 Triangle Media Group named him one of the top 50 South Asian Global Achievers in Mass Media.