Amjad Parvez A Genius of the Age
“Sub kahan kuch lala o gul men numayan ho gain” …. This wonderful thought of Mirza Ghalib is for every century, every time and every era. Amjad Pervez, passed away on March 3, 2024, was an engineer, writer, and singer at the same time.
He was born on March 28, 1945 in Lahore, British India to Sheikh Abdul Karim, Amjad Parvez was also the head of the Chemistry Department of Islamia College, Lahore.
He had the talent of writing and speech inherited. Amjad Parvez’s grandfather Khawaja Dil Muhammad was the principal of Islamia College, Lahore, who was also a poet of Tehreek-e-Pakistan. Amjad Pervez graduated in Mechanical Engineering in 1967.
In 1968 he went to the University of Birmingham, UK, where he received a master’s degree in quality and reliability engineering in 1969 and a doctorate in engineering production in 1972.Coming to music, the art of singing was running in the vein of Amjad Parvez since childhood.
He was a born singer. He started his career as a child artist in Radio Pakistan Lahore in 1954 with the children’s program ‘Hoonhar’ and appeared in ‘Khatir-e-Ahbab’ in the sixties.
He received his classical singing training from the teachers of the Sham Chaurasia family, including the renowned Ustad-e-Fun Nazakat Ali Khan-Ustad Salamat Ali Khan. Amjad Pervez has recorded hundreds of ghazals, songs and other songs since the 1970s.
For two decades, he presented one raag every month for the program “Ahang-e-Khosravi” and presented more than 50 Raags in Khayal form. Amjad Pervez was indeed a genius, he was also associated with Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) from its inception in 1964.
During his long career, he visited America, Great Britain, France, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Myanmar and India, and with his expert experiences, he also helped the television industry of these countries.
His writings received national and international recognition. For the last three decades of his life, he wrote a regular column on books for The Nation (Pakistan). His writings have been collected in two volumes. ‘Symphony of Reflections’ (2006) and ‘Rainbow of Reflections’.
Apart from this, his writings are also progressive in terms of music and cover many aspects. One of his books titled ‘Melody Makers of the Subcontinent’ covers 47 music composers from India and Pakistan from the 1950s to the 1980s.
Amjad Pervez’s services have been recognised at government and other levels as well. Gold Medal Award from the President of Pakistan for writing the best technical paper in 1977, Dr. AQ Khan Lifetime Achievement Award from the President of Pakistan in 2009 and Pride in 2000. Amjad Pervez died in Lahore at the age of 78.
