It has been more than two decades since the legendary qawwal – Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – has left us, but his Sufi devotional songs are still widely heard with great delight.
Dubbed as ‘The King of Qawwali’, Nusrat Fateh Ali’s compositions have defined the art of Qawwali for the generations to come. He departed this world at relatively a young age of 48, on August 16, 1997.
After his demise, his wife Naheed and daughter Nida Nusrat moved to Canada and never returned. People had almost forgotten them until recently after Nida came to Lahore and held a press conference to lay claim on her father’s art work, which would have surely made Rahat Fateh Ali Khan very uncomfortable. Nida Nusrat announced to launch action under copyright act against those using her father’s song saying that she was the only heir of her father’s work and those committing copyright infringement will be served legal notices.
“Whatever work Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan has done whether ghazal, qawwali, song or other work, I am the sole inheritor of all that stuff. Whoever wants to sing his songs should first seek permission from me for I am the copyright holder. “And those who have already sung the songs will be contacted to claim copyright and rest of the people who are doing it will be served legal notices,” she said.
