Renowned Pakistani singer Malika Pukhraj remembered on her death anniversary on Saturday. Malika Pukhraj was born in village Mirpur, on the banks of the River Akhnoor, 16 miles from Jammu in 1912. She was given the name "Malika" at birth, by a Majzoob Baba Roti Ram, a spiritualist in Akhnoor area, and named Pukhraj by her aunt.
Malika Pukhraj was coached by Ustad Ali Bakhsh Kasuri, father of Ghulam Ali Khan. At age nine, she visited Jammu and performed at coronation ceremony of Maharaja Hari Singh, who got so impressed by her voice that she appointed a court singer in his Durbar, and stayed there for another nine years.
Over the next eight decades, she captivated her audience with her command over the singing genres of Thumri, Ghazal, Bhajan and folk Pahari Geet, including Dogri folk songs. She was among the greatest singers of British India in the 1940s, and after Partition of India in 1947, she migrated to Lahore, Pakistan, where she received further fame, through her radio performances with composer Kale Khan.
In 1980, she received the Presidential Pride of Performance Award, Pakistan. In 1977, when All India Radio, for which she sang until Partition, was celebrating its Golden Jubilee, she was invited to India, and awarded with the 'legend of Voice' award. Malika Pukhraj also recorded her memoirs in the novel Song Sung True. Malika Pukhraj, died in Lahore on February 4, 2004. Her funeral procession started from her residence West Canal bank, and she laid to rest at her ancestral 'Shah Jamal' graveyard in Lahore.
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