Habib Wali Mohammad (Urdu: حبِیب ولی محمد), (16 January 1921 – 3 September 2014) was a Pakistani ghazal and film playback singer.
[1] Habib Wali Mohammad was born on January 16, 1921, in Rangoon in the Burma province of British India (now in Myanmar) into a conservative Memon family, which later moved to Bombay where he grew up.
In 1941, Habib Wali was awarded first prize in a Bombay music competition with 1200 contestants, including the singer Mukesh Chand Mathur.
His winning performance was singing the ghazals of the last Moghul Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, Lagta Nahin Hai Jee Mera Ujray Diyar Mein and Yeh Na Thi Hamari Qismat by Mirza Ghalib.
But probably because of his background and as a member of a well-established family, Habib Wali Mohammad had never pursued an aggressive and mainstream career as a singer, though he was still highly regarded among the Pakistani public.
His famous ghazals include Bahadur Shah Zafar's 'Na kisi ki aankh ka noor hoon' and Qamar Jalalvi's 'Kab mera nasheman ahlay chaman'.
His brother, Ashraf W. Tabani went on to become the Chairman of Export Promotion Bureau of Pakistan and later served as the Governor of Sindh in the late 1980s.
[5][2] Some of the ghazals, recorded in the voice of Habib Wali Mohammad are listed here below: National songs like: Roshan-o- rakhshan, nayyar-o-taban, Aye nigar e watan tu salamat rahay, Sohni dharti Allah rakhe, Lahoo jo sarhad pe beh chuka hay, La fata illah ali la saif-o – illah zulfakar.
Habib Wali Mohammad recently performed in April 2012 in San Jose, California for the Human Development Foundation in the United States at a fund-raising event.