Sardar Ali Takkar (, born 15 July 1956) in Takkar village (Takht Bai) Mardan is a Pakistani

Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...

singer. He primarily sings the poetry of renowned Pashto poet Ghani Khan. Takkar is a graduate of the University of Engineering and Technology in

Peshawar Peshawar is the capital and List of cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population, largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the sixth most populous city of Pakistan, with a district p ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. In recognition of his services to the field of music, the

President of Pakistan The president of Pakistan () is the head of state of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The president is the nominal head of the executive and the supreme commander of the Pakistan Armed Forces.

bestowed him the

Pride of Performance The Pride of Performance (), officially known as the Presidential Pride of Performance, is an award bestowed by the Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Pakistan to recognize people with "notable achievements in the field of art, science, literature, sp ...

Award An award, sometimes called a distinction, is given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration. An award may be d ...

. On 23 March 2019, Takkar became a recipient of

Tamgha-e-Imtiaz Tamgha-e-Imtiaz (), also spelled as Tamgha-i-Imtiaz, is a state-organised honour of Pakistan. It is given to any civilian in Pakistan based on their achievements. While it is a civilian/military award, it can be bestowed upon officers of the ...

award for the recognition of his "services rendered for Pashto music". It was presented by the President of Pakistan.

Education

He was born in 1956 at Takkar village (

Takht Bhai Takht-i-Bahi (Pashto/), is an Indo-Parthian archaeological site of an ancient Buddhist monastery in Mardan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The site is considered among the most important relics of Buddhism in all of what was once Gandhara. Th ...

) in

Mardan Mardān is a city in the Mardan District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. Located in the Valley of Peshawar, Mardan is the List of cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population, second-largest city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (after Peshawar). ...

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ; , ; abbr. KP or KPK), formerly known as the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Northern Pakistan, northwestern region of the country, Khyber ...

. He passed his matric examination from a school in his village. He did his intermediate from Government College Mardan. He completed his graduation in

Mechanical Engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

from the University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar. Aside from this he has also attended special courses in U.K and Canada.

Early singing career

His university life provided him more chances to exhibit his hidden talent. Initially he presented his skills before his friends, in different musical programmes in the University. But in 1982 when Yar Muhammad Maghmum, a professor at the historic Edwardes College Peshawar, wanted to celebrate an evening with the legendary philosopher and poet Ghani Khan, but was unable to find a singer who was ready to meet the challenge of putting Ghani's poetry to music. One of his student, Quaid Muhammad Khan (Manki Sharif) was able to inform Takkar of this situation. When Takkar became aware of this, he agreed to sing in that programme. Some people also recorded this programme on audio cassette, which got so much prominence that music stores started selling it on a regular basis. In this way, his debut album (solely based on Ghani khan's poetry) touched the market incidentally. In 2014 he performed at Nobel peace prize ceremony in Oslo, when Malala Yousafzai was getting Nobel Peace Prize Award. His song was based on the promotion of girls education. Since 2010 he is working in Voice of America as an international broadcaster.

Pakistan Television

It was in those days when a program for youths named "Zalmey Kool" (Young Generation) used to broadcast from the Radio Pakistan. Takkar for the first time not only played different instruments but also sang two ghazals in that program. After that, he also had the opportunity to record a program at the Peshawar Center of Pakistan Television Vision (PTV).

Soviet War in Afghanistan

In 1984, Takkar left for

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

. His stay in

helped him become able to sing other varieties of pashto music and his singing from Afghanistan also brought him prominence back at home. In recognition of his unforgettable services to Pashto music, the government of Pakistan awarded him with the "Presidential Award for Pride of Performance". He is also a recipient of numerous awards and certificates from a number of cultural organizations.

References

External links

A Profile of Sardar Ali Takkar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Takkar, Sardar Ali 1956 births Living people Pakistani mechanical engineers Pakistani male singers Pashto-language singers Pashtun male singers People from Mardan District University of Engineering & Technology, Peshawar alumni Place of birth missing (living people) Recipients of the Pride of Performance Recipients of Tamgha-e-Imtiaz