Ahmed Ghulam Ali Chagla

Ahmed Ghulam Ali Chagla (; 31 May 1902 – 5 February 1953) was a Pakistani musical composer who famously composed the music for the national anthem of Pakistan in 1949. Early life Chagla was born into a prominent Khoja Ismaili family in Karachi. His father, Ghulam Ali Chagla, was the third elected president of the municipality of Karachi, serving from 1921 to 1922. Ahmed Chagla attended the Sindh Madrassat-ul-Islam in Karachi and took lessons in classical Indian music in 1910 and western musical composition in 1914. Chagla became interested in the study of the theory of music (both eastern and western). In 1922, he began studying eastern and western systems of music under the famous art critic James Cousins. He was particularly interested in points of contact between the two systems. Chagla undertook several journeys to gain an insight of various eastern systems of music. In 1923, he travelled overland from Karachi to Iraq, via Balochistan and northern Iran (including the Caspian Sea, Teheran, Tabriz and Kermanshah). After touring Iraq, he returned to Karachi by way of Basra. In 1928 he qualified from Trinity College of Music in London. In 1929, Chagla undertook an overland journey