I think he is Punjabi because his brothers were wrestlers and had AKARHA in Karachi. I know one person who use to go there for Kushti.
ZZ,
Mehdi Hassan has sung classical as well. He even has an album out with classical rag and language (I don't know what that language is but it's a mix of some of Urdu stuff and some other strange expression, it's probably some kind of classic Urdu dialect that I'm don't know much about. It's the same sort of language that the song you listed has).
In that album, he sang couple of 'kafis' or sofi kalam of Sultan Baho and others (I think). He's also sung quite few Punjabi movie songs, which I can't say are much of my favorite ones.
Baloochis have a strange string instrument. what is its name?
In India vocal Hindustani music is more popular in Maharashtra while instrumental music is more popular in Bengal. Maharashtra (along with Goa and Northern Karnataka) has produced the maximum number of classical (Hindustani singers). Names like Kishori Amonkar, Padma Talwalkar, Moghubai Kurdikar, Kesarbai Kerkar, Bhimsen Joshi, Gangubai Hangal, Veena Sahasrabuddhe, Kumar Gandharva, Alladiya Khan, Arati Ankalikar.
The new generation of artists are amazing. Even in the generation of MTV and ZEE TV, Rock and Hindi film songs there is great potential in new artists. A classical music event in Mumbai college like Xavier's or IIT is packed with young crowd.