Shahid Shahbaz Khan is a Vice-Chairperson of a Glasgow based human rights charity which fights for the rights of the persecuted communities around the world. www.globalminorities.co.uk . After the completion of his University graduation majoring in English Literature and social work from University of Punjab, Pakistan he started working as a free-lance journalist highlighting issues pertaining to the minority communities to various media outlets in home and abroad.

Shahid has also campaigned and travelled with late Pakistan Minister of Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti who was gunned down in March, 2011 in Islamabad for his unflinching stance over Pakistan blasphemy laws.

Shahid also visited and documented incidents of violence including Gojra and Korian in Punjab, Pakistan in 2009 where minority Christian community was attacked and more than 9 members of Christian village were burnt alive over alleged blasphemy. He took interviews of victims of violence and highlighted the plight of minorities to the international community through his writings.

During his journalistic work he realised the fundamental and constitutional rights of minorities being overlooked both by the State and the non-State actors. The law enforcement agencies either being unwilling or incapable of protecting the rights of its religious communities which further dampened already beleaguered state of minorities.

Shahid started writing about the misuse of Pakistan blasphemy laws. He wrote an article in Pakistan based magazine urging Government of Pakistan to protect its citizens by repealing the draconian law which has been a ‘hanging sword’ for country’s minorities citizens. He represented Christian Solidarity International in 2009 when religious violence broke out in Gojra and Korian and distributed relief parcels and interviewed the families of victims.

In summer 2010, when Pakistan was hit by one of the worst flood disasters it had ever seen, Shahid traveled to the affected areas in the provinces of Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber Paktunkhwa. During his travels, Shahid met with members and leaders of different communities and minority communities in particular who expressed their concerns about the perils of torrential rains which destroy their properties almost every year. He distributed victuals to the affected families. 

In 2011, Shahid left his native country and came to live in Scotland with his family. He started campaigning for the rights of minorities’ world over through the work of Global Minorities Alliance.  Shahid takes a keen interest in the development of the charity. He liaises with human rights organisations, holds presentations to the interested groups, engages with the politicians and holds parliamentary lobby sessions to raise the issues in the countries of concern.

He was also part of Young International Scotland Award programme in 2013. Mr Khan presented his paper to the delegates under the title “A Just society is determined through the treatment of its minorities”

Shahid permanently resides in Scotland and currently a student of Aberdeen University in Politics and International Relations. He also plays cricket in Glasgow and Aberdeen University and an active member of a local community.

In his free time, Shahid writes poems and songs to promote peace, understanding and tolerance among peoples of the world.