Miandad brothers break up following brawl at Baba Farid’s shrine

Sher Miandad, Faiz Miandad came to blows ahead of Baba Farid’s Urs celebrations

LAHORE: Renowned Pakistani qawwal brothers Sher Miandad and Faiz Miandad brawled ahead of their performance at Baba Farid’s shrine in Pakpattan district on Friday. Family members tried their best to fix matters between them but their efforts went in vain and the siblings decided to part ways.

“The administration had invited Faiz to perform first and this didn’t go down well with Sher, who is older and experienced. They got into a fight that turned the entire celebration sour,” said Masroor Khan, an official of Punjab Auqaf department. According to him, Sher interrupted Faiz while he was performing and later started to insult him publicly. “It is a tradition of the Miandad family to perform here and in the past both brothers have performed together. However, this time around, they were invited separately because Faiz has been running his own qawwali group for some time,” shared Masroor.

“We are trying to patch things up but since they fought at a sacred place, the situation has become quite painful for the entire family. They are devastated because their reputation has been damaged,” said Shahnawaz, manager of the qawwal brothers. Sher and Faiz are the grandsons of the late Deen Muhammad and have been performing at Baba Farid’s shrine for years. “While they were given a great amount of respect for their qawwali services, the administration at Auqaf is now thinking of imposing a ban on both of them, after which, they will not be allowed to perform at shrines anymore,” added Masroor.

Both Faiz and Sher were trained under the tutelage of their father Ustad Miandad Khan and elder brother Badar Miandad. In 1996, Sher formed a music group and released a number of music albums. Soon after, he started folk singing alongside Faiz and the duo went on to perform in different parts of the world.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2016.

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