Amjad Parvez

Background

Parvez was born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1945 to Sheikh Abdul Karim who was head of the Chemistry department, Islamia College, Lahore and was author of many books on chemistry that were on the syllabus of inter and graduate curricula of the forties and the fifties. Parvez's grandfather Khwaja Dil Muhammad was principal at Islamia College, Lahore. He was also a poet of the Pakistan Movement as his national poems were read in the annual conventions of Anjuman-e-Himayat-e-Islam mostly presided by Allama Iqbal.

Parvez received his primary education in Punjab Schools in 1960. He obtained the Matriculation Examination at Central Model School, Lahore. He joined Government College, Lahore (GCU) and University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore (UET) from where he graduated in Mechanical Engineering in 1967. After joining UET in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, he proceeded to the University of Birmingham, UK, in 1968, where he qualified for a Master's degree in Quality and Reliability Engineering in 1969 and a Doctorate in Engineering Production in 1972.

Career

Parvez served Nespak (National Engineering Services Pakistan) for nearly 30 years rose to the positions of general manager and Vice President, and retired as managing director and President in 2005. During his tenure as managing director he brought in a record annual amount of business for Nespak.

After retirement from Nespak on reaching superannuation, Parvez joined as professor at UET responsible for teaching and research at graduate and post-graduate levels in its Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering Department. He also set up a consulting company for UET namely Engineering Services UET Pakistan Limited (ESUPAK). From 2011-2013 he served as the Head of Depart for Mechanical Engineering at the University of Lahore (UOL). He is a visiting faculty member in Ucest at Lahore Leads University.

Awards

Parvez received the President of Pakistan's Gold Medal for writing the best technical paper for the Institute of Engineers, Pakistan, in 1976. He is the publisher of more than forty technical national & international publications in engineering. He received the Dr. A. Q. Khan lifetime achievement award from the Institute of Engineers, Pakistan in 2010 and the Pride of Performance in 2000 for best music works.

Music

Parvez says he has had a passion for music since his childhood. He began his career as a child artist in 1954 at Radio Pakistan, Lahore in the children's' programme 'Honhaar' before appearing on 'Khatir-e-Ehbaab' in the sixties. He trained in classical singing from the Ustads of Sham Chaurasi Gharana such as Ustad Nazakat Ali Khan-Ustad Salamat Ali Khan duo (became their pupil in 1976), Ustad Ghulam Shabbir Khan-Ustad Ghulam Jaffar Khan duo (1992), and music composers Akhtar Hussain Akhian and Pride of Performance Mian Sheheryaar. He is a practising singer at the Central Production Unit, Radio Pakistan where he has recorded hundreds of ghazals, geets, and other songs since the seventies in his monthly performances. For the past two decades he has performed a raag for the programme 'Ahang-e-Khusrovi' every month and has rendered more than fifty raags in Kheyal form. Parvez performs both light, semi-classical and classical songs.

Parvez has also been associated with PTV since its inception in 1964. In his career he has also performed in the USA, UK, France, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, Myanmar and India.

Writings

Parvez's writing has been widely recognised. He has written a regular column reviewing books for the Daily Nation (Lahore) for the past three decades. These have been collected in two volumes: ‘Symphony of Reflections’ (2006), and 'Rainbow Of Reflections' (2011). Both books were published by Jahangir Books, Lahore. Parvez also speaks and writes on music. His book titled 'Melody Makers' covers forty music composers of the subcontinent from the 1950s to 1980s was published by Sange-Meel Publications, Lahore in 2012.