PESHAWAR: Popular folk singer Akbar Hussain Ustad was admitted to Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) due to heart complications on Saturday night, according to family sources. Jamal Hussain Akbar, elder son of the artist, told this scribe on Sunday that his father had been bedridden for the last eight years. He was suffering from multiple health aliments including heart enlargement.

He said that Akbar Hussain Ustad’s condition suddenly deteriorated on Saturday might and hospitalised at KTH cardiology ward where his condition, according to doctors, was out of danger.

The ailing septuagenarian singer is father of seven sons and four daughters. His family and fans have appealed to Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagara to extend financial assistance to the ailing folk singer.

Mr Hussain said that he needed financial support for his legendary father, who had devoted his whole life to the art of singing and sang 2,500 songs during the last 50 years.

“I brought my father to Khyber Teaching Hospital in unconscious condition on Saturday night. He had lost appetite and stopped talking to us due to hypertension. He had suffered severe heart attack two years ago but his health improved with the passing of time. Two and half months ago a problem in his eyesight occurred which drove him into depression. He feared he would go blind or probably he has already lost eyesight. This led to schizophrenia and mental dementia, but he fortunately recalled his memory,” said Mr Hussain.

Once a singer of velvety voice could not communicate properly to his fans, however, despair, destitute and helplessness were writ large on his drooping face. Born in 1947 in Sangu Landai area of Peshawar, Akbar Hussain shifted to Acheeni Bala, a village located on western outskirt of Peshawar city. He could not get formal education but he was fond of music and learnt basics from his sittings with learned people and poets.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2016