[1] Shahryar Muhammed Khan was born on 29 March 1934 in the Qasr-e-Sultani Palace (now Saifia College), in Bhopal State (honoured with 19-gun salute until 1947) in British India.

Khan is descended from the royal family of former princely state of Bhopal where his settler colonialist ancestors had emigrated during first quarter of the eighteenth century from Afghanistan.

[12] On 1 July 1994, he was appointed United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's Special Representative to Rwanda, succeeding Jacques-Roger Booh-Booh.

[25] He also co-authored Shadows Across the Playing Field: 60 Years of India-Pakistan Cricket (2009) with Indian writer and politician Shashi Tharoor.

[26] Khan served as the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) from 10 December 2003 till he resigned on 7 October 2006.

[31][32] In March 2016, Pakistan was eliminated from the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 after losing three matches against India, New Zealand and Australia and only winning against Bangladesh.

Furthermore, Khan did not release any statements on who he thought was responsible for the loss,[34] but instead, he said before the match that he would not change Afridi's position because he had been 'serving Pakistan for the last 20 years'.

Khan added that changes would happen after the tournament but also noted that the poor performance was from the whole team, except certain individuals.