Singer Gulrez Tabassum dies at 77 after being treated at a local hospital in Peshawar on Wednesday, family sources said. The Pashto folk singer, long associated with traditional music in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, was widely known for keeping older Pakhtun song forms in everyday hearing.
Career rooted in radio, television and folk stages
Born in Mardan in 1950, he started at Radio Pakistan Peshawar and later reached listeners through PTV Peshawar Centre, live stage work and Pashto films. Local hujra gatherings, television slots and regional recordings were all part of how his voice travelled. Listeners often linked him with a restrained, emotional delivery and with classical Pakhtun folk practice rather than studio fashion.
He favoured traditional sound—rubab and acoustic percussion—over synthetic beats. His sets leaned on tappay, the short two-line couplets that carry joy, grief and romance in Pakhtun life, as well as badala and long narrative qissa ballads handed down in the region. Film playback and broadcast spots helped carry that folk literature to audiences beyond the immediate circle of live gatherings.
Health decline and final years
Ill health led him to leave singing more than ten years ago. In his last years he was largely bedridden as his condition grew worse. According to family sources, singer Gulrez Tabassum dies at 77 in hospital care in Peshawar, closing a life spent as a public keeper of Pashto musical memory.
What his work leaves behind
Those who followed Pashto folk music will mainly meet him now through recordings, film tracks and the habits of listening he helped keep alive. His name sits with the borderland tradition of poetry set to song—not as a trend of one season, but as a steady, regional voice that preferred heritage instruments and older forms.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Mashhoor Pashto gaayak Gulrez Tabassum Peshawar ke hospital mein 77 saal ki umar mein foat ho gaye. Woh Mardan mein 1950 mein paida hue the aur Radio Pakistan Peshawar se gaana shuru kiya tha. Pehli sehat ki wajah se woh das saal se zyada pehle gaana chhor chuke the. Unki awaz tappay aur purani folk riwayat se juda naam chhor gayi hai.
