About Us

South Asia Tribune is the concept and creation of Mr Shaheen Sehbai, a veteran Pakistani journalist of over 30 years standing. He is known in Pakistan and internationally as an independent and courageous journalist, who faced, confronted and exposed corruption in government, politics, business and journalism.

Mr Sehbai’s life and career has been a continuous battle against corrupt elected and non-elected politicians, self-imposed military dictators, wily bureaucrats, twisted business tycoons and compromising ambitious journalists. Throughout his career he faced challenges, physical attacks, government persecution and even a botched murder attempt.

In August 1990 he was arrested and fake cases were registered against him. Government-manipulated media declared him an enemy agent. He was tried in a court on trumped-up charges but acquitted honorably in December 1990.

In 1991 his house was raided by masked men who pulled out pistols and threatened his sons, challenging them to ask their father to write against the Government again and see the consequences. The attack caused a nation-wide uproar and protest demonstrations by Pakistani journalists. An attempt to run him over in his car was made in 1994 by a military truck but he survived and continued to write the truth and pinpoint corruption.

Numerous times he confronted elected politicians and military dictators, face to face and in his writings. His courage to speak out against the corrupt always raised his stature and he climbed from a reporter in 1990 to Islamabad Bureau Chief of Pakistan’s leading Daily "Dawn" in 1993, to its Washington Bureau Chief in 1995 and then as Editor of "The News", owned by the country’s largest media group and published from four cities, Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and London (UK), five years later.

As Editor, he proved to be fiercely independent and continued to expose the weaknesses of the Government and its corruption. When in 2001 he published the first billion-rupee scam of the Musharraf Government, the Pakistani General was furious and immediately punished his newspaper by blocking all advertisements and government revenues. The scam took place under the Labor Ministry and shortly afterwards the Labor Minister, Omar Asghar Khan, resigned from the Musharraf cabinet. This former minister committed suicide in June 2002 in mysterious circumstances amid speculations that he was being hounded or haunted by the billion-rupee scam under his ministership.

Nothing could shake Mr Sehbai though. He refused to follow the orders, persuasions or pleas of Government media managers. In February 2002, Mr Sehbai published stories on the kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and the military government decided to move against his newspaper, found an excuse and declared that Mr Sehbai was acting against Pakistan’s national interest. He rejected their charge but resigned in early March 2002, as his owners could no longer face the financial sanctions and a total blockade of government revenues.

 A storm of criticism broke out as Mr. Sehbai wisely left the country fearing threats to his life. His resignation received wide international coverage and shocked the world media as General Pervez Musharraf’s claims of allowing a free press were challenged. All major US TV channels including CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC interviewed him. He is probably the only journalist in the Third World, on whom the CNN International telecast a full 30-minute program in its Q&A series, on March 19, 2002, focusing on the issue of Freedom of Press in Pakistan under General Pervez Musharraf.

Influential newspapers like the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and Financial Times published Mr. Sehbai’s opinion pieces, who had moved to the United States.

Our Mission