Imran Riaz Khan: Biography, Age, Education, Career, Arrests and Where He Is Now (2026)

Who is Imran Riaz Khan?

Let’s clear up the biggest confusion first. Imran Riaz Khan is a journalist. Imran Khan is a former prime minister. They are two different people and they are not related.

Imran Riaz Khan built his name as a television anchor. Then he moved to YouTube, where he built an even bigger audience. His daily videos on politics draw millions of views.

He is also one of the most argued-about media figures in the country. His fans call him fearless. His critics call him a party mouthpiece. And press-freedom groups around the world have followed his case because of what happened to him after 2022.

You do not have to agree with a journalist to care about what happens to him. That is the reason his story matters beyond his own audience.

Early life and education

According to his public biography, Imran Riaz Khan was born on 14 August 1975 in Faisalabad. That makes him 51 in 2026. The date is easy to remember because 14 August is Pakistan’s Independence Day.

He went to school in Lahore and then studied mass communication at the University of the Punjab. This is the main state university in Lahore and one of the oldest journalism schools in the country.

That is really all that is reliably known about his early years. Many websites offer much more detail about his family and income. Most of it has no source. We have left it out.

Career: from crime reporter to prime-time anchor

His career followed a path that many Pakistani anchors share.

1. Newspaper reporting. He began as a crime reporter for a local paper. Crime reporting means police stations, courts and long nights. It is a tough school.
2. Television. He moved to Express News, where he became a current-affairs host. Later he worked for Samaa TV and GNN.
3. YouTube. In 2020 he started his own channel. Within two years it had more than six million subscribers.

Why did so many anchors move online around that time? Three reasons.

• Freedom. A TV channel has owners, advertisers and a regulator. A YouTube channel has none of those in the room.
• Money. A popular channel earns advertising income directly.
• Loyalty. Viewers follow a person, not a logo. If an anchor leaves a channel, the audience can follow him to his phone.

For Imran Riaz Khan the move changed everything. On television he was one voice among many. On YouTube he became a brand of his own.

What kind of journalism does he do?

His videos are commentary, not field reporting. He sits at a desk, talks to the camera and gives his reading of the day’s political news, often with claims from unnamed sources.

His line since 2022 has been clear. He has been sharply critical of the governments that followed Imran Khan’s removal and of the military’s role in politics. He repeated Mr Khan’s claim that the 2022 vote of no confidence was the result of a foreign-backed plot. The parties that brought the vote have always denied that.

This is why opinions about him split so sharply.

Both columns contain fair points. Keep both in mind as you read the rest.

The four arrests

Between July 2022 and February 2024 he was arrested four times. Here is the record in one place.

A few details help explain the table.

The first arrest came the day after he posted a video addressed to the army chief of the time. He was on his way to Islamabad to seek bail when police stopped him.

The second arrest was short. He was accused of trying to create a rift between the public and state institutions.

The fourth arrest turned into a chain. Press-freedom groups reported that he was granted bail in one case and arrested again outside the court in another. By the middle of 2024, courts had discharged him in those cases.

The disappearance of 2023

The third arrest is the one that made headlines around the world.

On 9 May 2023, Imran Khan was arrested in Islamabad. Protests broke out across the country, and military buildings were attacked. A broad crackdown followed.

Two days later, on 11 May 2023, Imran Riaz Khan was detained at Sialkot airport. Here is what was reported after that.

• Police said he was released from jail the same night.
• CCTV footage described in court showed unidentified men taking him away from outside the prison.
• His family went to the Lahore High Court. For weeks, the police chief of Punjab told the court that no police station had him and asked for more time.
• International groups raised the alarm. Amnesty International called for an urgent and transparent investigation. Reporters Without Borders said it feared he had been mistreated.
• On 25 September 2023, the police chief confirmed he was “safe at home”. He had been missing for more than four months.

People who saw him afterwards said he had lost a great deal of weight and struggled to speak. He later resumed his videos.

What was 9 May 2023, and why does it keep coming up?

You cannot follow his story without this date, so here is the short version.

On 9 May 2023, former Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested inside the Islamabad High Court’s premises in a corruption case. Within hours, his supporters were on the streets in many cities. Some crowds attacked military buildings, including the residence of a senior army commander in Lahore.

The state’s response was sweeping. Thousands of people were arrested. Party leaders were detained, and many announced that they were leaving the party. Some civilians were tried in military courts. The PTI says the violence was used as an excuse to crush the party. The government and the army say it was a planned attack on the state.

Journalists seen as close to the PTI were caught up in the same wave. Imran Riaz Khan’s detention at Sialkot airport came just two days later.

Leaving Pakistan

In early 2025 he announced that he had left the country. Reports citing his family said he had reached London. He later described a difficult journey out of Pakistan. His name had earlier been placed on the Exit Control List, which bars a person from flying abroad.

Since then he has continued his channel from overseas. That puts him in a growing group. Several Pakistani commentators who are critical of the current set-up now broadcast from the United Kingdom or the United States.

Does distance change the journalism? In some ways, yes.

• Safer, but further away. A commentator abroad cannot be arrested at home. But he also cannot attend a court hearing, meet a source in person or see events with his own eyes.
• Freer, but harder to correct. With no regulator and no editor, mistakes travel faster and corrections are rare.

A new case after he left

Leaving did not end his legal troubles at home. In January 2025, Dawn reported that the Federal Investigation Agency’s cyber-crime wing had registered a case against him and the PTI’s Shahbaz Gill. The complaint said they had shared altered images and videos of political figures on social media. The case was filed under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act.

Both men were outside Pakistan at the time. No outcome of that case had been reported when this profile was written. An FIR, remember, is the start of a case and not a finding of guilt.

The bigger picture: journalists under pressure

His case is not a one-off. In recent years several well-known Pakistani journalists have faced cases, lost their programmes or left the country. The most tragic example is Arshad Sharif, a popular anchor who left Pakistan in 2022 and was shot dead in Kenya in October of that year.

Journalists’ unions say the pressure comes from many directions: the state, political parties, militant groups and powerful business interests. Reporters outside the big cities often face the greatest danger and get the least attention.

It is worth holding two ideas together. A journalist can be one-sided, and he can also be a victim of unlawful treatment. One does not cancel out the other.

What press-freedom groups have said

His case has been followed by the main international watchdogs.

• The Committee to Protect Journalists reported on his 2024 detention and raised concerns about it.
• The International Federation of Journalists issued statements after his arrests and after the charges were dismissed.
• Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International spoke out during his 2023 disappearance.

These groups do not endorse a journalist’s opinions. Their point is narrower. They say a journalist should not be jailed or made to disappear for what he says, and that any real offence should be tried openly in court.

The government’s position has been different. Officials have argued that some online commentators cross the line from journalism into incitement, especially around 9 May 2023, and that the law applies to everyone.

TV anchor or YouTuber: what is the difference?

His career sits right on the line between old media and new media. This comparison explains why that matters.

Legal words you will hear in his story

News about arrests in Pakistan is full of legal terms. Here they are in plain English.

Knowing these words helps you spot weak reporting. For example, an FIR is only an accusation. It is not proof, and it is not a conviction.

Timeline: Imran Riaz Khan at a glance

Why his story matters

You may love his videos or never watch them. Either way, his case tells you three things about Pakistan today.

• The centre of political debate has moved online. The most-watched political voices are now on phones, not on cable.
• The rules have not caught up. Laws written for television and newspapers fit badly on a platform that has no editor.
• The cost of commentary has risen. Arrests, court cases and exile have become part of the job for some commentators.

If you want the constitutional background to the events he talks about most, start with our explainer on how a vote of no confidence works.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Wikipedia, “Imran Riaz Khan” — biography as last edited on 30 September 2026; used for dates that still need checking against the original reports.
• Committee to Protect Journalists, “Pakistani journalist Imran Riaz Khan held in terrorism investigation” — March 2024.
• International Federation of Journalists, “Pakistani authorities arrest TV anchor Imran Riaz Khan again”
• Dawn, “Anchorperson Imran Riaz released after Lahore court discharges him in fresh case”
• The Express Tribune, “Imran Riaz Khan released after courts discharge him in two FIRs”
• The Express Tribune, “Imran Riaz Khan announces relocation abroad after leaving Pakistan” — early 2025.
• Dawn, “Doctored images, videos: FIA lodges cyber crime case against Shahbaz Gill, Imran Riaz” — January 2025.
• Geo News, “Imran Riaz leaves Pakistan for London after ‘torturous ordeal'” — early 2025.