From office boy to investigative reporter

Sher Ali Khalti’s articles in Pakistan daily have won him acclaim

ISLAMABAD—Sher Ali Khalti of The News has become a symbol of inspiration for youngsters, having risen from an office boy to becoming an investigative reporter. He thanked Allah for his good luck.

According to Gulf News, he got recruited as an office boy at The News, Lahore, in 2014. His job was mainly to serve tea to the staff or get printouts of their articles. Today, he works in the same organization as an investigative reporter. His articles on militant outfit Jamat-ul-Dawa (JuD), shariah courts, honor killings, Chotu gang (a notorious gang of kidnappers in Southern Punjab), and missing people have been highlighted in the paper.

Khalti comes from Rojhan, a remote and underdeveloped town in the Rajanpur district of Southern Punjab. His father passed away during the 2005 floods in the Indus River that destroyed their belongings and cotton crop.

Later, he moved to Lahore, where he completed Masters in English from Punjab University, Lahore, and later did his Masters in Mass Communication from National University of Modern Languages (NUML).

Being a native of South Punjab, Khalti offered his editors that he could interview the gang leader Chotu. He did the exclusive story, and later the law-enforcement agencies contacted him to play the role of an intermediary.

In 2016, he formally joined the paper as a reporter and has been a member of the Fact-Finding Mission on Kartarpur Corridor, constituted by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).

Source: Gulf News