Born on August 13, 1954, in Loralai to a Parsi family, Jimmy Engineer received his early education at St Anthony High School in Lahore. He later enrolled at the National College of Arts (NCA), but while in his final year, he made a defining decision to leave formal education. Firm in his belief that “an artist is born, not made,” he chose to pursue life as a practicing artist rather than seek a degree.
Jimmy Engineer began his professional artistic career in 1976. Over time, however, his work expanded beyond creativity alone, shaped by a deep compassion for humanity, particularly the underprivileged. As his vision matured, his paintings gained international acclaim, crossing Pakistan’s borders and finding homes in private collections around the globe. Today, his artworks are displayed in countries including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the United States, Canada, China, Russia, Italy, Spain, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Africa, and many others, alongside Pakistan.
Alongside his artistic journey, Jimmy Engineer emerged as a dedicated social activist. He has led more than 200 awareness walks highlighting social issues and noble causes. In addition, he has organized over 260 awareness programmes for children with disabilities and orphans, often in collaboration with hotels and restaurants.
Since 1976, Jimmy Engineer has received more than 130 awards, shields, and medals in Pakistan and abroad. His notable honours include the All Punjab Paintings Exhibition First Prize in 1978, the National Award for Minorities in 1983, international Rotary awards, major human rights and peace medals, and prestigious civil honours from the Government of Pakistan, including the Sitara-e-Imtiaz in 2005 and the Hilal-e-Imtiaz in 2025.
After leaving NCA, he spent a few years in Lahore before settling permanently in Karachi. To date, he has created over 3,000 paintings, including hundreds of abstracts, calligraphies, and drawings. Beyond exhibitions—more than 120 worldwide—he has donated over 700,000 prints of his work to charities, ensuring his art continues to serve humanity as much as it inspires it.
This writer has known Jimmy Engineer for more than 45 years and has closely observed his journey as a creative artist, social crusader, and peace activist, both within Pakistan and across various countries around the world. A deeply committed Pakistani, Jimmy Engineer consistently uses every opportunity at home and abroad to project Pakistan’s soft, positive, and peace-loving image.
Although he was born seven years after the creation of Pakistan, he earned widespread acclaim nationally and internationally for his remarkable series of Partition Paintings, created entirely through imagination rather than lived memory. Similarly, his transformation of Allama Iqbal’s poetic masterpiece Javid Namah into a large mural painted on a wall inside a room at Dr Javid Iqbal’s residence in Gulberg, Lahore, stands out as another landmark achievement. Jimmy Engineer himself often cites these two works as among the most significant accomplishments of his artistic career.
In all fairness, and to the best of this writer’s knowledge, no other Pakistani artist—living or deceased—can match the breadth and depth of achievements credited to Jimmy Engineer. Despite his towering stature in the art world, he remains exceptionally humble, warm, and approachable.
However, this writer feels deeply shocked, saddened, and disappointed by the treatment Jimmy Engineer has received from his former alma mater, the National College of Arts (NCA). Despite his extraordinary contributions and international standing, the institution’s management has not invited him to participate in the many events organized since October 2025. This neglect becomes even more striking given that foreign artists, including German artist Beate Terfloth and British artist Janie Louis Holman, were formally invited to participate in the Triennale events.
It is particularly disheartening because Jimmy Engineer, as a former NCA student, has maintained a long association with the institution. Over the years, he has not only regularly attended exhibitions and art shows at NCA but has also held several of his own exhibitions at its art galleries. Most recently, he showcased his work at the Zahoorul Akhlaq Gallery in May 2024.
Note: The writer is a Lahore-based freelance journalist, columnist, and retired Deputy Controller (News), Radio Pakistan, Islamabad, and can be contacted at zahidriffat@gmail.com
