Veteran Pakistani actor, director, producer Abid Ali passes away at 67

Veteran Pakistani actor, director and producer Abid Ali was hospitalised on Monday due to serious liver condition.

Veteran Pakistani actor, director, and producer Abid Ali has passed away at the age of 67, according to local media reports. He has been ill for some time and was hospitalized at Karachi’s Liaquat Hospital on Monday due to a deteriorating liver condition. 

After his hospitalization, the rumors of his death were being circulated on social media. His daughters Iman Ali and Rahma Ali took to social media to clarify that their father was alive and the news circulating online is false.

Born and educated in Quetta, Abid Ali was attracted to the arts from an early age, writing stories and painting in his childhood and teenage years, and first entered Radio Pakistan before going to Lahore after some struggle and launching his successful TV career with PTV's drama serial Jhok Sial in 1973.

He launched himself as a director and producer with the 1993-hit drama Dasht, also the first private production for Pakistan, while the same year, for PTV this time, he directed the drama Doosra Aasman, the first drama shot abroad, followed by other projects for many channels, including Saheli in 2007, or Massi aur Malka, a family based-drama, in 2009, usually acting in these serials as well.

He had acted in numerous television and film productions in Pakistan but is best known for his role as Dilawar khan in the PTV classic drama Waris (1979). He won the Pride of Performance Award by the President of Pakistan in 1985.

He has three daughters including the supermodel-turned-actress Iman Ali as well as the actress and singer Rahma Ali.

Abid Ali was recently seen in the film Heer Maan Ja alongside Ali Rehman Khan and Hareem Farooq.