mjad Pervez, who passed away last week, was as enthusiastic a music lover as one could find. He had amazing confidence and without hesitation was willing to jump even when not asked to perform. He never hesitated to demonstrate his limited capabilities, unlike many who are shy to do so.

He was first heard and seen on Pakistan Television Lahore Centre in the middle of 1960s. Pairing with Mushtaq Hashmi, he rattled off Punjabi folk to an audience wanting to connect with their roots and cultural expression. It was a limited audience in awe of the new viewing platform within a 10 mile radius that the technology allowed.

Amjad Pervez was initially at Government College. Later, he qualified as an engineer at the Engineering University, eventually he received a foreign doctoral degree and then went on to head NESPak. Mustaq Hashmi was also at Government College, captaining the cricket team. However, both appeared on television that was telecast live. Mushtaq Hashmi was the brother of the later much celebrated film composer Khayyam and the older brother of Shakoor Bedil, whose voice was melodious enough to render various types of kalam. Khayyam had left for Bombay (now Mumbai) to try his luck as a composer and after a few decades of being in the shadow proved his mettle. He was a sensitive composer but the company of many greats made his job very difficult. His struggle made him excel and outshine the senior contemporaries who were losing the battle against the changing taste of music in the Indian films.

They were from Beadon Road. It was in that locality that Amjad Pervez met Mushtaq and they decided to sing together.

Amjad Pervez was confidence personified. He continued to sing, switching to ghazal when it became very sought after in Pakistan with the rise of exceptional vocalists like Mehdi Hassan, Fereeda Khanum and Iqbal Bano.

It is difficult to say what the full name of Mushtaq Hashmi was but he was popularly known by this name because he had been totally captivated by Shoaib Hashmi and decided to make Hashmi a part of his own name. In the last of the much-celebrated Government College vs Islamia College cricket matches played at Lahore’s University Ground, one got to see Mushtaq Hashmi captaining the Government College team and winning the contest. It was no mean team, either, because many of the members went on to play for Pakistan in the subsequent years and make a name for themselves. Mushtaq Hashmi did not make it to the Test level. He chose instead to join PIA which offered patronage to cricketers then. He was posted all over the world thus putting the singing partnership with Amjad Pervez on a hold.

Mushtaq Hashmi’s son died and he was a broken man till his death a few years ago. But Amjad Pervez was confidence personified. He continued to sing, switching to ghazal when it became very sought after in Pakistan with the rise of exceptional vocalists like Mehdi Hassan, Fereeda Khanum and Iqbal Bano. He did not bat an eyelid and was willing to jump in, not scared of criticism. He even prevailed upon Hayat Ahmed Khan to allow him to render kheyal and possibly thumri. He was so insistent that Hayat Ahmed Khan relented. He performed on the platform of the All Pakistan Music Conference and boasted about it in the years that followed.

In his later years, he went into writing about music, more particularly the popular forms of music like film music. He wrote in newspapers on the vocalists, composers and other personalities related to the field. It became clear that he was a keen follower of the more popular forms of music and had great knowledge about them especially of the period that he was himself a keen and enthusiastic practitioner of whatever forms came his way. The information, even the trivia, was worth documenting. He did it and in the end the compilation ran into several volumes.

The writer is a culture critic based in Lahore