Ahmed Quraishi to host @Q on Express News

JournalismPakistan.com | Published January 15, 2015 | Aamir Saeed

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Ahmed Quraishi to host @Q on Express News

ISLAMABAD : Ahmed Quraishi, senior journalist, popular columnist and anchor, is all set to host his first current affairs talk show on Express News from Jan 23.

His program @Q will run Friday through Sunday from 10-11pm.

In an interview with JournalismPakistan.com, he said the innovative title of his program was conceived by the channel's marketing team so that it appeals to the educated and tech-savvy youth.

“The marketing team feels that @Q will help in branding the program and attracting young educated viewers from across Pakistan ,” he said.

Quraishi started his career in journalism from Al Hayat, an Arabic international newspaper, as a columnist in 1997. He also remained associated with Al Jazeera Arabic as a reporter for almost three years, from 2001 to 2004.

He said that his program on Express News would be like a talk-show but well-segmented and fast-paced unlike other talk shows on various news channels.

“Ratings of the current affairs talk shows have considerably dropped in recent times; therefore my team and I are trying to do something different but viable,” he said.

‘@Q’ would consist of 25 segments in total while each program would carry two to three separate and different segments to avoid monotony and keep the viewers glued to the television screen.

“Topics and news are almost the same to be discussed in a current affairs program but the real thing is angling of the news and issues,” he said, “It is possible to provide an attractive current affairs content without creating petty controversies. The key is angling and presentation."

Quraishi is also planning to shun routine guests on his show as he wants to do a host-based-opinionated program to enlighten his viewers about different aspects of a particular issue.

“I’d love to give five minutes to a taxi driver on my show if he sounds well and has got a genuine viewpoint on a particular subject than the routine dandy guests,” he said.

Heavy graphics and animations will also be used to keep the program enriching and lively besides the genuine and well-researched content, he said.

“We were planning to go on air on Jan 16 but have to delay it for a week. We are imparting training to our team on graphics, animations and content as well to come up with a robust program,” he said.

In 2004, Quraishi joined Pakistan Television where he later started hosting a current affairs program, “WorldView.” He has also been associated with The News as a columnist from 2004 to 2013 and is an executive director of Youth Forum for Kashmir .

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