‘Musicians continue to face discrimination’

Pashto artistes decry suppression of their skills after rise in militancy

PESHAWAR: People linked with music and performing arts continue to face discrimination and negative profiling by society, said famous writer and scholar of history and literature Noorul Amin on the eve of International Music Day observed on March 3.

Pakhtun people in general like music and art, but do not show due respect to performers. This duality of behaviours is a dilemma facing our society since decades, Amin said talking to Daily Express.

The Pashtun art and culture has been suppressed since the past four decades, Amin added.

Due to militancy the great Pushto performers from Afghanistan and Peshawar have either migrated to other regions, or shifted abroad in order to save their families and themselves, another writer said.

“Haroon Bacha, Shakeela Naz, Gulzar Alam and if I counted, the number would reach to about a hundred, while Gulzar Alam has taken refuge in Afghanistan , living in pathetic conditions,” Amin said.

The rise in militancy has brought a drought in K-P in the field of art and music, while famous musicians still fear returning to their native regions.



Pushto singer Arshid Khan, commenting on the digital era and its impact on Pushto music, said that artists earned from sale of cassettes in past, but due to zero copyright practices in Pakistan these artists lost profits.

“The culture department has been occupied by a mafia, due to which poor artists have been sidelined. Moreover the provincial government also provides a meagre amount for their livelihood,” Arshid said.

He suggested that the government should provide patronage to the artists for promotion of Pushto music.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3^rd, 2019.