Shahid Ahmed Khan

The Honorary Consul General of Pakistan, Shahid Ahmed Khan is a distinguished member of the Pakistani-American community in Boston, Massachusetts. He is actively engaged and committed in promoting just causes and believes in working tirelessly to create an understanding and resolution of problems that are at their most critical juncture at present between his country of birth Pakistan and his adopted home United States.

Born and raised in Lahore, Shahid Khan migrated to the United States of America, where he attended Western New England College, Springfield MA, for his MBA. He joined the Pharmaceutical Industry by joining first Sandoz in the marketing department and later Glaxo Smith & Kline dealing with government affairs and marketing and then to Norvatis with the same responsibilities. Most of his background is in business development, dealing in Marketing, government affairs and healthcare.

Shahid Khan has been actively involved in political activities for the past 15 years and has served as national finance co-chair on Senator Kerry’s presidential campaign. He also serve on the Board of Trustees of the Democratic senatorial campaign. He was involved in Hillary’s Clinton’s election campaign. Shahid Khan has an excellent relations and interaction with members of Congress and senators. He is closely working with the Senator John Kerry, the co-author of the Kerry Lugar bill. He also serves as Commissioner on the Governor of Massachusetts' Asian American Commission.

Shahid Khan is the part of a relatively small group of professional Pakistani-Americans, including Prof. Adil Najm, Mr. Hasan Usmani, Dr. Iffat Moosa Khan (his spouse), Dr. Saad Ayub and Dr. Mansoor Khan. They all work together on emerging political issues. They have taken responsibility for writing South Asian focused policy papers for the politicians and consequently would make recommendations accordingly. They have worked with Senator John Kerry very closely and their recommendations were incorporated in the Kerry Lugar bill.

According to Shahid Khan, unfortunately these are the challenging times being faced by the Muslims including Pakistanis in different parts of the world. Our community is encountering multiple kinds of issues in and outside the United States, however, fortunately, the leaders in the United States realize the fact that we Pakistanis are not pursuing a religious agenda but a political agenda.

In America we should present our point of view to dispel this negative impression. We should be more responsible, socially and politically, and it is important that Pakistanis should join Parent Teacher Association (PTA) groups, attend Inter-faith meetings and try to create impression to locals that they are peaceful minded people.

Shahid Khan suggests we should write articles and reviews in the mainstream media. Members of our community should attend regular Inter-faith (Jews, Christians and Muslims) meetings and should try to resolve all problems related to our community.

Countries always run better with better governance. In democratic governments, people elect their leaders and must be allowed to let the leaders work. Both, media and politicians should also accept their responsibilities, and should try to focus on major issues rather than on trivial issues. Whatever is happens in Pakistan is of course is reported by the local media, and eventually picked up by the international media. In that way media should assume greater responsibility for its coverage.

Shahid Khan also believes that government of Pakistan is doing its best to tackle terrorism in the existing situation, however, they have certain limitations. Pakistan Army is dealing with multiple fronts at this time in and outside the country. The International community must help the Pakistan Army and Pakistani people in their war against terrorism. There are suicide bombings at random which makes the situation at its worse.

We all know American government is observing the issues from their own lens, while Pakistan government and Army has to deal on various fronts. Every situation has different demands and there are no hard and fast rules about this. Americans see things from their own perspective while Pakistan has its own standing based upon the ground realities they are dealing on hand. We strongly feel that Pakistan is doing its best with the available resources. The US is a superpower so their expectations are high. Pakistan needs more aid from the international donors to cope with the situation.

Shahid Khan also believes, both the countries (Pakistan & United States) have failed miserably to promote their images. The Americans and Pakistanis both have cardboard images of each other. The Americans have not done enough to promote their image. The people in Pakistan should know that the Americans are doing a lot for example US has given the majority of Fulbright scholarships to Pakistan. Whenever Hillary Clinton goes to Pakistan, Pakistan’s image goes up. There should be more exchanges between the governments. US representatives on their visit to Pakistan should invite journalists to dinners to discuss ground realities. There should be a lot of exchange and interaction between people to people.

Shahid Khan says we should act more responsibly socially and politically. We should be seen as part of the mainstream public and not an isolated group. After 9/11 the world has changed. We should be more focused and responsible.