 In January 1947, Qateel was asked to write the songs of a film by a Lahore-based film producer, "Dewan Sardari Lal".The first film he penned the lyrics for was "Teri Yaad (1948)" in Pakistan.Later, after working for some time as assistant lyricist to some of the famous poets/lyricists of the time (1948 to 1955 time period), he eventually became a highly successful film lyricist of Pakistan and won numerous awards over the years for his film song lyrics.