It is truly disappointing to see an educated and talented musician like Salman Ahmad take undignified digs at Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.  From his counterfactual article to his tweets, Salman Ahmad is only lowering his dignity with his reactionary polemics against the young Bilawal.

Lets start with his tweet, which given the facts, is comically off the mark

Salman Ahmad’s (@sufisal) December 24, 2012 tweet: “At 24, I was a doctor who started an underground rock movement to defy a military dictator at 24, Chairman PPP defies democracy”

Dear Salman, the military dictator is General Musharaf whom you shared the stage with – twice!

Were you really 24 when you were in effect providing legitimacy to Musharaf’s illegal coup by performing, quite literally, with him?

Can you also provide some background on your “underground movement” against Musharaf that did not involve signing lucrative recording deals? The proof of your movement anti-Musharaf movement, on Terra Firma atleast, seems quite scarce.

Unless ofcourse you are referring to the dubious Lawyer’s Movement that was backed by General Kiyani (head of ISI then) where you may have marched with such other “luminaries” as the Taliban of Lal Masjid and their benefactor, General Hamid Gul.

Readers should know that Salman Ahmad’s song “Ehtisaab” (which translated to “accountability”) was banned not by General Musharaf but by Nawaz Sharif.  While catchy, the song was the epitome of the elite chattering class’ moral selectiveness.  The song limited itself to highlighting the alleged corruption of the then recently deposed PPP government that had been dismissed via a Constitutuional dictat, Article 58-2b, inserted by another military dictator.

Most of these corruption allegations have since proven to have been concocted by the PPP’s political rivals like Nawaz Sharif who had banned Salman Ahmad’s Junoon in the first place. Nawaz Sharif represented the Jamaat-e-Islami mindset whose thugs had also attacked Junoon – as highlighted by Mr. Salman Ahmad himself in this video

The irony in all this is that today, Salman Ahmad is supporting PTI – another Jamaat-e-Islami front!

Not only was the song selective in its PPP bashing – there was no mention of the military establishment’s stranglehold on Pakistan – it was also the rallying cry of the hyper nationalist and hypocritical elite classes of Pakistan against a popularly elected PPP government. In an indirect way, Salman Ahmad and his band Junoon were part of the efforts to undermine democracy and pave the wave for dictatorship.  Appearing in a supporting manner on stage with said dictator was the icing on this cake of hypocrisy!

We all make errors in judgement but to malign the orphaned Bilawal and use racist pejoratives (“gora accent”) to mock him personally casts Salman in a very poor light. His recent article in the Express Tribune does that and more.

It relies on half-truths, exaggerations and outright fabrications to fling mud at the popular and charismatic Bilawal and shows that this aging rocker has a personal axe to grind with the PPP leader. Salman’s barely disguised jealousy with Bilawal’s popularity clouds his judgment and the result is a poorly written polemic that will serve as a permanent embarrassment to the author.

Aside from trotting out the urban elite’s laughably hypocritical stereotypes about “dynasty politics” and “feudalism”, Salman’s one-sided argument crumble on closer examination – especially his shoddy attempt to place the onus of responsibility of Shahzeb’s murder on Bilawal.

The much hyped civil society protests to catch the culprits of Shahzeb Khan’s murderers has been publisized as Civil Society’s campaign against feudal power – ofcourse limited to only those feudals who might be allied with the PPP.  It fails to mention that Shahzeb himself came from a privileged background being the son of a high ranking police officer – a senior Deputy Superintendant of Police (DSP). The late Shahzeb is also alleged to be a close relative of PPP leader Nabil Gabol. There are also Facebook blurbs that highlight the late Shahzeb’s own contempt for civic norms. One cannot authenticate these blurbs but so far, the media and its Civil Society auxillaries have not even bothered.

Fake Civil Society and the Judiciary’s typically selective moral outrage against this as opposed to the daily massacres by the Sipah Sahaba Taliban have already spoilt the chances of a fair trial and politicized the murder of Shahzeb Khan.  The culprits must be brought to justice but Justice must be done too.

For Salman Ahmad to hold Bilawal responsible for this comes across as a bit rich – considering that Bilawal has never acted as an apologist for violence – unlike Salman’s relative and political choice, Imran Khan, who publically denies the atrocities of the Taliban.

As for the ills of Feudalism, Salman Ahmad should appreciate the irony of his harangue.  Some of Pakistan’s most dominant feudals like the Makhdooms, Qureishi, Hashmis, Legharis, Bhosans etc play a central role in his cousin, Imran Khan’s party, PTI!

The PPP government should be held to account but by making the criticism personal and selective, Salman Ahmad loses the plot.  Sadly, his confused brand of politics is representative of the urban elite classes of Pakistan and remains the same amongst the expats enjoying a comfortable life in the politically liberal societies of North America and Europe.

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