National Institute of Folk & Traditional Heritage – Lok Virsa on Tuesday paid a glowing tribute to the renowned folk singer Qurban Ali Niazi, who passed away due to COVID-19. In a message, Lok Virsa while acknowledging services of the late singer said, Qurban Ali Niazi started his singing career from village to village and hamlet to hamlet with his ‘chimta’ in accompaniment with traditional ‘Dhol’. Born in 1947, he made his debut in the Urs/Festival of Shah Shams Tabrez in Multan at the age of 10. Like his elder brother and guru, legendary folk singer, late Muhammad Tufail Niazi, Qurban Ali was almost a household name in Punjab, which separated him from others was the spontaneity of renditions of typical folk dialect and extraordinary memory of musical narratives and folk songs of all regions of Punjab. His association with Radio Pakistan, Pakistan Televison and National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage (NIFTH) was five decades old and as a member of Pakistan Cultural Troupe, he had performed in the United States, Europe, Far East, Gulf states and India. He was specially known for his renditions of sufi kalam/mystic poetry of Baba Bulleh Shah, Mian Muhammad Bakhsh, folks songs, Jugni, Mahiya and Mirza. NIFTH, with whom Qrban Niazi was artistically attached since its incentive days has produced and published his audio-video recordings on CDs and DVDs. In addition to his achievements, he was also the recipient of Tamgha-i-Imtiaz. Lok Virsa prayed Almighty Allah to rest his departed soul in eternal peace and grant courage to his family and fans to bear the irreparable loss with fortitude.