Prof. Shah is working in the area of Nanotechnology and Supramolecular Chemistry. He has authored five books (Elsevier) and also edited two books (Elsevier), alongwith seven chapters in books and more than 430 research articles in international journals with impact factor more than 1335. He has two US patent to his credit too. He has supervised and co-supervised 33 Ph.Ds. and 43 M.S/M.Phil scholars. The research projects of Dr. Shah is funded by both  National and International funding agencies. He was declared top scientist for the year 2019 by directorate of of Science and technology government of KPK. He received Civil award Tamgha-i-Imtiaz-2015. Atta-ur-Rahman gold medal-2006 and Dr. Raziuddin gold medal-2015 by Pakistan Academy of Sciences. He received Abdus Salam (Nobel Laureate) award, and selected TWAS Young Affiliate in 2010 by Third World Academy of Sciences. One of his authored books was declared best book of the year 2017 by HEC. He is fellow Pakistan Academy of Sciences, fellow Islamic world academy of sciences, fellow International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and fellow the Chemical Society of Pakistan. Prof. Shah remained Mentor of Pakistani International Chemistry Olympiad Team since 2008 and the team has won 21 bronze medals and 03 honourable mentioned. He is the Deputy Coordinator National Chemistry Talent Contest Program of HEC. He is Editor of the Journal of the Chemical Society of Pakistan and remained Secretary General Chemical Society Pakistan (2016-2021). He served (2007-2012) as National Representative in IUPAC. He was member of National Nanotechnology Foresight Committee (PCST). He was a member of COMSTECH consultative working group of scientists from OIC countries, to prepare Ten-Year Plan of Action (TYPOA 2016-2025). He is regularly organizing national and international workshops and delivering lectures. He conducted 21 Phase-1 clinical-trials (BE-PK) along with 04 phase-II clinical-trials for Multinational pharma as PI. He led the vaccine (COVID-19) phase-1 clinical trial of Sinopharm company in Pakistan. He lead the DRAP approved clinical trial for the treatment of COVID-19 patients with traditional chinese medicines

Current research interest includes synthesis of artificial drug delivery systems based on the principles of synthetic supramolecular chemistry. The intelligent orientation of various rings like porphyrins, calix[n]arenes and cyclodextrins can be exploited to form receptors with interesting properties. Functionalization of metal based nanoparticles is another area of interest.