Lahore-based Punjabi singer Shaukat Ali passes away

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, April 2

Punjabi folk singer Shaukat Ali passed away on Friday after a brief illness at Lahore. He was 78.

Ali, who was known among Punjabis on both sides of the border, had been suffering from complications that cropped up after liver transplant. He was going under treatment at Lahore’s Combined Military Hospital, Pakistani media reported. 

Shaukat Ali was known for taking Punjabi folk song ‘Chhalla’ to new heights. It was later sung by several other Punjabi singers but it is often said that nobody could match Ali.

As per Pakistani media reports, Shaukat Ali was born into a family of artistes in Malakwal, a town in Gujrat district (now in Mandi Bahauddin district), he began singing in the 1960s, while at college.

Punjabi poet Gurbhajan Gill, who knew Ali for the past two and half decades said that Punjab has lost a towering cultural figure in his death.

“He would frequent visit Punjab and was often seen at weddings of friends from the fraternity. Amrita Pritam’s interview-based piece on him, which was published in her magazine Nagmani was remembered for long.”