-Karachi: Pioneer of documentary-filmmaking in Pakistan, Khalique Ibrahim breathed his last in Anklesaria Hospital at about 11 in the morning. His namaz-e-janaza was offered in his apartment compound after Maghrib prayers and he was laid to rest in Sakhi Hasan graveyard. He is survived by his wife and two sons.
“He was bed-ridden for quite some time due to his neurological disorder, which caught him two years ago,” Khalique’s son and journalist Tariq Khalique told The News. Being a self-effacing poet and filmmaker, Khalique was not known in the popular literary circles but he was a literary figure of great merit. He had written, directed and produced more than a dozen international award-winning documentary films, including the one which bagged Cannes Film Festival prize.
Though Khalique Ibrahim Khalique was born in Hyderabad Deccan in 1926, he was the descendent of a Kashmiri family settled in Lucknow. He did his BA Honours in English and Adib Fazil in Urdu from Punjab University in the mid 1940s. From Lahore, he went to Bombay to start his career as a scriptwriter.
He migrated to Pakistan in 1953 to pioneer documentary filmmaking in Pakistan. He established the government’s department of films and publications and one of his documentary films, Pakistan Story, earned him Tamgha-e-Imtiaz in 1960s.
His docudrama Ghalib actually established the late versatile actor Subhani Ba Yunus as great Urdu poet Ghalib for the masses when he went to play the same role for the PTV. In 2003, he was awarded the lifetime achievement award at the Kara Film Festival.
Khalique Ibrahim Khalique always shot his films on 35 mm. Another epic documentary he directed was Quaid-e-Azam for the State Film Authority in 1976, which was later banned by the military regime of Gen. Ziaul Haq. “He wanted to make a film on Allama Iqbal but the contract was given to another man,” Harris Khalique, the poet-son of the late filmmaker recalled. Soyem will be held at his residence O/1 Hasan Apartment after Asr prayers on Sunday.
