Pindi Boys band dedicates title track to Sheikh Rasheed

Jasim Haider says revamped version of song will feature in ‘Pindi Blues’ album

KARACHI: ‘Pindi Boys’ (or boyses) is not just a name given to a group of apparently sordidly-clad, creepy-eyed males of Rawalpindi; it’s a phenomenon, a movement. You don’t expect or want to see them in your flashy high-class malls but you will. There is nothing you can do about it.

Thursday saw Awami Muslim League’s (AML) leader Sheikh Rasheed , in a typical Pindi boy style, evade the cops on a bike to go join Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and AML protesters in Rawalpindi. With a swag rivalling Pablo Escobar’s, Rasheed was seen smoking a cigar and waving to the passersby while giving the police the run of their lives.

The incident caught on the internet and numerous memes and tweets later, Rasheed is now a living legend whose stories you will tell your children years later. His GTA-style evade gained him such notoriety that Jasim Haider & the Pindi Boys band have dedicated their song Pindi Boys to our very own Don Corleone.



“What he did was a typical Pindi boy move. No one could have done it but him. That’s how a true Pindi boy looks and acts like,” Haider tells The Express Tribune, citing it as a reason to dedicate the song to him.

The song titled Pindi Boys was released in 2014 and went viral right after. Haider tells a story about how the song came about. “I am born and raised in Rawalpindi. I lived in Karachi for years though and when I returned after my education, the discrimination had increased. That’s when I thought I had to do something about it. I am a Pindi boy and I’m proud of it.”

He is annoyed by the change in behaviour when people come to know he’s from Rawalpindi. “What triggered me to write this song was an incident. I was at a TV station and we met a woman there. She listened to our songs and talked to us but the second we told her we were from Pindi, her expressions changed. I thought I had had enough.”

He says he doesn’t understand the situation. “Why is there so much discrimination towards Pindi? Javed Sheikh is from there. Even Vital Signs was a Pindi-based band.”

However, all the discrimination has not affected Haider’s pride. He claims, “We (Pindi boys) might not be rich but we have swag. We don’t care if we are on a CD70 bike, we will exude that swag.” The Pindi-based band, which consists of Haider on vocals, his younger brother Eiman Hussain on drums, Adeel Haroom on guitar and Moshin Zaidi on bass, is set to release their debut album Pindi Blues in early 2017. Haider shares there will be eight tracks in the album, including a new version of Pindi Boys. “The songs will be of different styles. We have a couple of heartbreak songs too and then there’s a whole lot of other music.”

One of the songs, titled Geet, is dedicated to the music industry and another to the media and film industry as to how Indian films influence us. “We grew up with music from the 80s and the 90s. Back then, the music meant something. It’s not the same anymore. We don’t create meaningful songs now. So as an artist, I would rather make a statement through my music rather than just sing romantic songs.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2016.

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