OUR STAFF REPORTER LAHORE The magician of voice, versatile Lollywood playback singer Ahmed Rushdi was remembered by his fans across the country on his 28th death anniversary, observed on Monday. Syed Ahmed Rushdi was born on 24th, 1934, in a well respected Hyderabad Deccan family. Though, singing was strictly disallowed in his family but Rushdi was crazy about music and wanted to sing all sorts of songs. In 1954, he came to Karachi with his family, and gave an audition at Radio Pakistan and in same year, he first sang a poem of Himayat Ali Shaer, soon followed another hit, 'Bandar Road se Kemari, which was a mega-hit of the times. Rushdi sang his first number for the film 'Karnama in 1956. He has recorded the highest number of film songs in the history of Pakistani cinema industry. He sang over 800 songs for 583 films till his death in 1983. Ahmed Rushdi, a master of all moods was adept at singing all styles, be it happy, comedy, tragedy, qawwali, lullaby, and patriotic, pop, revolutionary or folk numbers. He was an important contributor to the golden age of Pakistani film industry and considered as one of the greatest singers of South Asia. He is also considered the first regular pop singer of South Asia and credited as having sung the first ever pop song of South Asia 'Ko-Ko-Ko-reena. Since 1976, Ahmed Rushdi was a heart patient and his doctors advised him to abstain from singing but Rushdi refused by saying that music was his life. When he had a second heart attack in 1981, he was composing a musical album. On the night of April 11, 1983, he had a third heart attack. He was immediately taken to the hospital but pronounced dead by the doctors.