Bravo!

Pop music’s favorite boy next door has suddenly turned into a controversial figure.

Ali Haider along with models Nomi Qamar and Neha got arrested a couple of days before New Year, from Nomi’s apartment, after one of his neighbors (a Gulshan-e-Iqbal Nazim) complained about some ’immoral activities’ taking place in their apartment.

The three were tested for alcohol influence that very evening and the reports, though kept under wraps, are positive. Though no case has been registered against them, Ali fiercely defends his position and argues that the said Nazim had an axe to grind with his neighbor Nomi. The case, which is getting uglier by the day has raised a lot of questions for a society which is trying to tread two conflicting paths of liberalism and fundamentalism.

Following is Ali Haider’s statement to the press:

“The injustice I have suffered recently has annihilated my life and my love. My love for someone was the inspiration for my new album. But this incident has ended my life. I don’t know whether I will be able to sing for my fans again or not. They have said that in the country for whose glory I have worked for the duration of 15 years, the result of that is that a few blackmailers have destroyed everything I have for cheap fame and their own personal ego. They said that the day the incident happened, I went with my model friend Nomi to his flat where Neha, the model from Lahore was also present.

Both of them are working in the video of my new song ’Shamaan Pai Gaiyaan’. That Sunday evening, we were rehearsing for the video with loud music, when a Nazim who resides there tried to burst into the flat with some of his companions, upon which Nomi and the intruders got involved in a bout of fisticuffs. After this the Nazim and his companions made the most shameful allegations against us and took us to the Police Station in the area, even though the police knew nothing of what had transpired. Here, the Nazim tried to use his influence to cut an F.I.R. against us, based on his shameful allegations. However, the duty officer there told them that until our medical result proved the Nazim’s allegations, he could not cut an F.I.R. against us.

I want to tell the press, that if we were doing something wrong, the police would have arrested us and closed the case, but this never happened. I am grateful to the high ranking officials in the police and the TPO Clifton, Munir Sheikh who on this occasion apologized, not just to me, but to my family. I am also thankful to the Karachi press who supported me after this incident and printed what I had to say as it was. To fulfill the wishes of my fans, I will definitely complete this video. I will shoot the reality of this incident for the video so that my fans know the truth.”


Forget about the why part. We all KNOW that. The question should be: How Come? More so, how dare he? The he being the nazim. How dare he just barge into an individual’s home screaming bloody sin? What next? The Jamaati mayor, Naimuttullah’s Orwellian ’thought police?’

Actually I confronted such a force during my collage days back in the late ’80s. The Jamat-e-Islami’s "Danda Group" whose job it was to help Zia-ul-Haq’s police break-up NSF and PSF demonstrations, and then Islami-Jamiat-Tulaba’s notorious "Thunder Squad" which went about "cleansing the universities of obscene, immoral acts" (such as dating, playing cards and listening to music!).

The nazim barging into Ali Haider’s flat... is this a trailer for a Ziaist future? We’ve had enough of trailers highlighting assorted Ziaist tendencies and Taliban whip-lash in the MMA ruled NWFP. So why should we in Karachi feel so "liberal" and safe?

Haider is an idiot. A chickened out punk. He should’ve stood up and said it all. After all, is he the only one in this land of the poor doing what he did, or was accused of doing? Isn’t the practice of imbibing carried out all over the country by the rich and the not so rich alike? Often by the cops and the nazims themselves?

I’d rather have our morally correct nazims and mullahs give a little more thought and action and have the guts to tackle much more serious issues. How about the same nazim taking his bold moral brigade and barging into a heroin peddler’s den in Shirin Jinnah Coloney, or Burns Road, or wherever, instead of fixing their eagle-eyed agendas to matters only relating to female models and show-biz "playboys."

In the end, my dearest "socially-concious" pop stars, "YEH hay tumhara pyara Pakistan!!!" Cola peeyo, jingle bajao, quami naghma gao, akhir main dari rakh ker, ghar chalay jao!"

Bravo.