Ash-har Quraishi, Staff Reporter
Ash-har Quraishi is an Emmy Award-winning television journalist with more than a decade of local, international, investigative and long-form reporting experience. He is currently a joint Correspondent for WTTW, where he reports for their flagship nightly news magazine show Chicago Tonight, and the Chicago News Cooperative, where he writes for the CNC website and provides print and online content focused on Chicago for the New York Times.
Prior to 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. His explosive report on police complaint procedures was honored with a 2007 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award for Investigative Reporting.
In that report Quraishi uncovered intimidation and abuse at one local police station leading to reforms in the police complaint process. 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.
Quraishi is currently in post-production on a feature-length documentary he is co-producing on the Arab-American experience in Dearborn, Michigan post 9/11. The film follows Fordson High School’s predominantly Arab/Muslim-American football team as they prepare to face-off with their cross-town rival. The film begins on 9/11 and follows the team for the last ten days of their holy month of Ramadan as they practice and play football while fasting. The film is slated for release in late 2010.
In 2008 Quraishi 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.
Prior to his work at 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 RTDNA, IRE, 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 five-time Emmy nominee and two-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.
Born and raised on the Northwest Side of Chicago, Quraishi attended the Chicago Public Schools and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is married to former CNN producer, Basma Babar-Quraishi and has a five-year-old daughter.
