A Squabble Over Father and Son

I came across an interesting communication today. Call it a discussion, call it a hate mail, call it a political engagement. Call it what you want. But it was between two friends who drifted apart and bared their swords as they stood on opposite sides of the political divide.

These two were Bilal and Salman, to be more precise Bilal Musharraf of General Musharraf fame and Salman Ahmad of Junoon fame. The General vs. Junoon. These war of words brought a smile to my face. Here was a son standing up for his father matched up against a national symbol standing up for his country.

Both are right in what they say in their own way, but one is more right than the other. The good of the collective always takes precedence over the good of the individual. Bilal was standing up for one man, Salman was standing up for 150 million men.

Here's the transcript. Read and make your own judgements.

The first letter is from Bilal Musharraf to Salman Ahmed:

I am compelled once again to share another personal anecdote, rather a saga… and apologize in advance for the length of the account. This one is about Salman Ahmed.

“…You read heaps and write heaps
And bury your head in books
Light is everywhere but where you are
And you haven’t a clue how to reach it
Marking time in extra prayers
Climbing a minaret and screeching
Mounting a pulpit and preaching -

-All this has nothing to do with knowledge
Cryptic Sciences? Enough already! Aleph is all you need …. Iko aleph teray darkaar…”

Title: Aleph
Album: Parvaaz
Lyrics: Bulley Shah
Music: Salman Ahmad

Salman has been a close friend and a spiritual guide of sorts since 1998. It started with an email I wrote to Salman (got his email address from my brother-in-law) in a moment of unabashed inspiration after listening to Ali Azmat sing “Aleph” over and over again.

From what I remember, “Aleph: A Call to Basics” was the subject line of that email. I was star struck when I heard back from Salman, and pursued further correspondence that developed into a friendship. My brother-in-law Asim had made Junoon’s first video ‘Sayonee,” The video, along with the amazing album ‘Azadi’ had propelled Junoon to become the best international band by Channel V in 1998. Asim went on to make videos for Junoon’s live concert at central park in 1998 (a tribute to Nusrat Fateh Ali), “Yaar Bina,” “Bulleya”, and “Saqi Nama.” It was the live concert in NY where I finally met Salman for the very first time.

I had been married six months and my wife and I drove down from Boston as typical “groupies” singing Junoon’s songs all the way on the drive over to the concert. The attached picture below will probably better articulate our “junooni” state. In the packed to capacity crowd of 20,000 at the summer stage, I had picked my wife up on my shoulders because she couldn’t see anything…. In fact a Friday Times journalist who wrote about the concert included an image of the of us swooning to the music, and captioning the picture “On Top of the World”.

This was 1998, prior to the anomalous events that were to happen in my life and I remember my parents and my in-laws getting a good laugh out of the embarrassing moment caught on camera. I also remember this concert as the high point of Junoon’s fame. So what began as a random email exchange led to a friendship that is now close to a decade old. The events of this year have unfortunately cast a shadow on the authenticity of the relationship, and I stand guarded with regard to where we stand today. Salman was one of very few individuals that I reached out to on a regular basis to bounce off thoughts and ideas, seeking guidance in managing my emotional and psychological self. He has been a source of support and inspiration, and I truly grateful to him for that. His valuable insights (Salman’s extremely well read), were meaningful for me in negotiating with circumstances that I unexpectedly found myself in.

I feel that for Salman, music is a platform but I really feel he is best suited to play a bigger role in the scheme of things. I used to describe Salman as a Sufi to the core. He walked the walk and talked the talk, when it came to standing up for what he believed in. However here is where I start feeling sad and disappointed…. Because I don’t know what he believes in anymore. Please allow me to explain. The first time my alarm bells rang were regarding the future of the band Junoon itself. I remember having a conversation in which I tried to persuade husband and wife, Salman and Samina, that since Ali and Brian were dropping out of the band, that Salman no longer use junoon’s name.

Why? Because Salman’s personal musical and intellectual journey was going in a direction that Junoon’s music might not have gone, had the band and the fans stayed together. Not that I could speak for “the fans”, I was just one of them. In my humble opinion the “junoon” phenomenon was not just Salman, Ali and Brian, it was also the 1990s, the newly unleashed power of rock, and a youth bulge feeling stifled and desperately looking for change. For any one band member to unilaterally try to run with junoon might take away from the junoon experience, similar to how Matrix II and III actually ended up eroding Matrix I. Let it be, was my verdict.

So many new bands had come up, who paid homage to Junoon (Noori, Jal etc.) for opening the doors, but were much better at riding the youth’s passion. In fact I made a half baked pitch to take the character “Jeem” from Junoon perhaps, and broaden its domain as being “Jeem” for “jiddojehed, jurrat, jazba” etc. not just passion ala junoon. In a shallow vein, I suggested looking at what happened to the men’s clothing store “Structure” as an example. “Express”, which was a women’s clothing line acquired “Structure” and started calling it “Express for Men” but it failed. Men simply refused to wear clothes that said Express on them because they didn’t feel it was right. I feel something similar is happening to Junoon.

The second context of the alarm bells had to do with feeling uncomfortable hearing messianic verdicts from Salman regarding my father until maybe last year, to the extent that I felt a need to discount the faith in autocracy as being able to deliver on all fronts. As Joel Polodny (current Dean at Yale, former OB professor at GSB) put it, “In the short term, performance can almost always be enhanced by foregoing logic of person and emphasizing logic of position. In the long term however, logic of person (read: vision) facilitates accountability, flexibility, and motivation. Leadership depends on a balance.”

I was a bit disappointed when a picture of Salman and my father that I had taken some years back when Salman met me in Pindi appeared on Junoon’s website (http://www.junoon.com/news_archive2003.htm). Although Salman had asked for the picture, he had not indicated that it would go on the website, let alone also be credited to me publicly! In any case, I reconciled with that as no big deal.This year though, has left me truly disappointed and hurt. If Salman feels the need to neutralize the burden of prior public contact with my father with his venomous rhetoric, I find it not just unjust but truly unfair. Looking back today, I am unable to decipher whether his motivation for prior public overtures towards my father were selfless or selfish in nature.

I told him just last month in Calgary (at the Mystical Journey Tour: http://www.theismaili.org/he2-3.htm) the difference between him and Bono is that Bono wouldn’t post a picture with Bush on his own website, even if he sees the President as an instrument of change and not the personification of it. No one is perfect, I realize. However to the extent one can, one must try to reduce one’s integrity gap which someone defined aptly as the difference between lived values and stated values.Bilal [Musharraf]------------------------------------

This letter is from Salman Ahmed to Bilal Musharraf:

Dear Bilal,

Thanks for this shared e-mail. I’ve never publicly responded to you but am compelled to do so now. I’ll respond to the public part of your criticism of my changed stance against your father’s policies.For the record, my support for your father’s vision of “enlightened moderation” was never based on any personal expectations or “marketing” (rock musicians dont usually like hanging out with military dictators) My prior public support to your father’s govt. along with that of the vast majority of Pakistanis was given in the belief that he would deliver on his public promises to fight extremism, respect civil institutions,bring accountability to corrupt politicians, open up a free and independent media and reduce the immoral gap between Pakistan’s rich and poor.

The picture that you took of me with your dad was taken in 2003,when I felt that the international media was cynically and wrongly depicting Pakistan as a total terrorist state being defended by “only” one pro-western moderate Pakistani, your father. Although i was ridiculed by many for doing so, but i chose to put that picture on the Junoon website after the assasination attempts on your father in December 2003. The picture was meant to symbolise the majority support of Pakistan’s civil society for the fight against extremism and lawlessness. That picture and my support for your father’s govt (WHICH YOU WOULD VOUCH,I HAVE NEVER ABUSED FOR PERSONAL GAIN NOR HAVE MY FAMILY OR FRIENDS) was never meant to be taken as a blank check for the state machinery to run amok and start dismantling civil institutions, making deals with crooks and plunderers, treating civil servants like common criminals, kidnapping and killing innocent Pakistanis under the guise of the “war on terror” and illegally spying, torturing and jailing thousands of Pakistanis (which include national heroes, supreme court judges, lawyers, rights activists, house wives and students).

My recent op-ed in the Washington post and my public disassociation with your father should not be a surprise to you. I wrote many candid e-mails to you in August and September of this year,sharing my concern about your father’s policies and his govt’s high handed tactics.You responded by saying I was being too harsh to which I reminded you that true friends are not meant to be mistaken for sycophants and cronies but are a True barometer of the public’s perceptions.You chose to ignore these warning e-mails and dismissed them as “emotionalism”. Even when you visited me while I was on tour in Canada in October, you promised that there would be no reason to impose emergency in Pakistan and you assured me that your father respects the judiciary and has spoken to the chief justice of the supreme court in this regard. Alas, even that myth has now been totally shattered. The supreme court judges are also citizens of Pakistan who have courageously tried to stick to the letter and the spirit of the law for which they are being punished by your father’s govt.

Why is this so?All that I write above is not just my view but the view of millions of Pakistanis and independent observers. I’m not writing out of spite or revenge but conveying the voice of Pakistan’s not so silent majority. As an artist I have also publicly criticized previous Pakistani rulers who like your dad made the mistake of not respecting civil society or civil institutions and I will continue to do so in the future as well. Staying silent is no longer an option, Art disturbs and artists have no choice but to listen to their conscience.

Yours Sincerely,

Salman Ahmad

P.S. I still have the e-mails that I wrote to you privately which reflect my public disapproval of your father’s deviation from his self confessed path of enlightened moderation, I can resend them if you’d like