Sharif slips the purdah on Pak’s rock scene

ISLAMABAD, Jan 27: Cartoonists in Pakistan generally feature the prominent baldness of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and his politically-domi...

ISLAMABAD, Jan 27: Cartoonists in Pakistan generally feature the prominent baldness of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and his politically-dominant brother and father. So perhaps it was not surprising when Sharif recently said of pop musicians, “I’d like to cut their hair”.

But what is surprising to many Pakistani youths is how quickly the Prime Minister, whose conservative Pakistan Muslim League holds a sweeping majority in the national assembly, made good his threat.

Not that the raven-locked singers of rock-based groups like Vital Signs or Awaz have suddenly become clean-cut. Instead, pop musicians, who until recently

were mainstays of Pakistan’s state-owned PTV and the popular FM 100 radio, have simply disappeared. Deprived of their visibility on Pakistan’s public radio and television, heartthrobs like Sajjad Ali (whose hit `Babia‘ is a remake of similarly-banned Algerian singer Khaled’s `Didi‘) and Awaz’s Harun Rashid are now only seen on Indian satellite channels — accessible only tothose wealthy Pakistanis with satellite dishes.

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Since last November, Pakistani culture has begun to return to the officially-sponsored Islamic programming favoured during the 1977-88 dictatorship of Gen Zia ul-Haq, who banned rock music — along with western clothing and unveiled women — from being seen on state media outright.

Predictably, some Pakistanis grown used to the liberalisation of culture during the recent administrations of Sharif and predecessor Benazir Bhutto are disheartened. “The government should do something about the economy and law and order, and not waste time pushing around pop singers,” says Ali, a young computer programmer, echoing a typical sentiment. The musicians themselves have characterised the tiff as a cynical political ploy.

“Politicians find it easier to pick out scapegoats than to solve problems,” Sajjad Ali told mediapersons. Indeed, pop stars have been in the eye of the storm for years when it comes to the debate pitting `western’ values (like blue jeans, longhair and rock) against their `Islamic’ counterparts (like `shalwar kameez’ and the classical `ghazal‘ song form). The Islamists at Raiwind — who enjoy the support of Sharif’s octogenarian father, Mian Sharif, known simply as `Abbaji‘ — have long fumed that western images are becoming too prevalent in Pakistani media. Abbaji is reported to have encouraged his son to stifle the pop musicians, and is also believed to have played a role in selecting Pakistan’s new, conservative Islamist president, Rafique Tarar (dubbed `the holy Tarar‘ by wags).

How far the campaign will go is another question. Information Minister Mushahid Hussain denies that there have been any efforts to censor musicians. But one Muslim Leaguer is not sanguine: “When these fellows (in government) start to focus on insignificant issues like musicians’ clothes, you know they’re out of ideas”.