I don't know any Urdu either, to be honest, just a smattering of half-forgotten Arabic, but I can tell you that in at least most Arabic dialects I learned about, K and Q are in fact distinct sounds.

The same distinction exists in Akkadian: q is emphatic where k is not; it's died out of modern Israeli Hebrew, but I believe there are other dialects which kept it. Greek also used to have a qoppa, but I think it was gone by the fifth century BCE. I can't pronounce any of the Akkadian emphatics correctly, but at least I know they exist.

But have some half-educated linguistic rambling anyway!

Linguistic rambling is always appreciated! I didn't know you knew Arabic.