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Tempers are flying high amongst Pakistani musicians and it is now Junoon’s former members who are arguing online.

Junoon may have disbanded in 2005, but two of its band members are still not over it. When Ali Azmat’s solo career was compared to Salman Ahmad’s on a talk show on Dawn News, Azmat could not let the bygones be bygones and said, “[Like Salman] I couldn’t sit down on a computer and send emails to the managing committee of the Nobel Peace Prize to let Junoon play there.”

Further mocking Ahmad, he said, “I don’t call up the media to please take my interview. You know, ‘I am doing this concert, why don’t you just cover my concert?’ If it’s worthwhile, they will cover it anyway.”

Ahmad wasn’t one to not respond. “I’m stunned at the audacity of ignorance, the dishonesty and the complete hypocrisy uttered by Ali Azmat,” he said in a statement. “I would like to make clear that Ali Azmat had zero creative input on over 90 per cent of Junoon’s songs.” Salman Ahmad then made the argument personal by saying, “While in Junoon the only thing Ali was most vociferous about was having his money for nothing and his chicks for free, and yes he also enjoyed running around naked in the middle of the night in five-star hotels.”

A couple of weeks ago, singer and producer Jawad Ahmad issued a statement against musician Abrarul Haq saying that Haq had falsely accused him of misusing charitable funds for his film Virsa and that the major financing for the film came from Indian producers. Ahmad has filed a suit against Haq and is reportedly suing him for Rs100 million for tarnishing his reputation. Haq is scheduled to appear in court on July 15.

Popular band Noori had their own share of drama when drummer John Louis Pinto aka Gumby was asked to leave by Ali Noor and Ali Hamza and posted a letter on their website explaining the reasons behind this decision. This letter did not go down well with the media, the fans or Gumby himself who did not deign to comment on it.

However, in 2009 Noor and Hamza performed on Coke Studio where they reunited with Gumby after Noor apologised profusely, according to his blog. “Yes we were like family and I guess I behaved that way only because I was hurt just like how a brother is from another brother …  have no excuse for what I did ...  you will have to forgive me”.

Another band which split was Jal formed by Atif Aslam and Gohar Mumtaz who went their separate ways after their popular single “Aadat” released online. The two were said to have “musical differences”, although there have been rumours that Mumtaz was getting angry at Aslam and his brother who became the manager for Jal, as he did not know what their intentions for the band were.  Mumtaz and Aslam went their own separate ways after the fall-out.

But tensions arose when a few of the songs on Jal’s album also appeared on Aslam’s debut album leading to a dispute as to who owned the rights of the songs.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 7^th, 2010.