Pakistan

DJ Butt threatens to take PTI to court

DJ whose beats punctuated political rhetoric at PTI's dharna claims the party owes him a whopping Rs60 million

Web Desk July 06, 2015

Imran Khan with DJ Butt. PHOTO: @ALIKANCHWALA

Muhammad Asif aka DJ Butt, an entertainer whose beats punctuated political rhetoric at the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) sit-in in Islamabad last year, claimed on Monday that the party owes him Rs80 million.

“My total payment for playing music at the PTI sit-in was Rs140 million but I have only been paid Rs60 million so far,” DJ Butt said, while speaking to Express News.

Read: Press pause: Silence in the air as PTI’s DJ picked up

“I will go to court if my payment is withheld,” he said, adding the party still owes him Rs80 million.

Further, Butt, who has been working with PTI since 2010, said, “My daily pay was Rs0.6 million.” He added he owes Rs50 million to people for services.

Read: Unfortunate: DJ Butt’s assistant dies of heart attack at PTI sit-in

In September 2014, during the sit-in, Butt was arrested by law enforcers on charges of abetment.

Soon after the news broke, #JusticeForDJButt started trending on Twitter:

Not supporting any political party but just saying, pti itni batain krti hai, pehlay DJ ka bill to clear kr day #JusticeForDJButt
— sarmadsaleem (@khanssarmad) July 6, 2015

https://twitter.com/QararaRasha/status/618018187905359872

https://twitter.com/AswadBinAzraq/status/618010920808136704

A copy of DJ Butt's bills can be viewed here:

COMMENTS (44)

Us | 8 years ago | Reply @Adnan Siddiqi: I'm the cult follower?! Says the person who posts 3 to 4 posts daily in support of the corrupt government of the day. Don't worry your wealth/job acquired through corruption/nepotism is safe, no one can eliminate the endemic and systemic corruption in Pakistan. However if your corruption/nepotism is blindingly obvious and extreme.... Well than that might be a different story!!

Usman | 8 years ago | Reply @Maria: Not all Pakistani Expats are hourly workers, come to Canada,USA, UK, Australia, there are professionals, doctors, engineers and entrepreneurs. 100 dollars/euros/pounds (10,000rs) is nothing we had a $500 plate (50,000rs) dinner for PTI for each city IK came to visit in the US/Canada. To your question of what we paid for, no political party is perfect, but PTI is far better than the alternatives. Will they make mistakes ? Yes, but still better than the corrupt parties

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Adnan Siddiqi | 8 years ago | Reply @Usman, Pardon me for saying this my kind sir but you sound like a blind darbari, mureed, subject and disciple of some dirty cult.

Maria | 8 years ago | Reply @Usman: questioning funding is illogical? exactly what are you expecting 'us pakistanis' to do. and might i point out that the leader in question aka the naya-pakistan-khan does nothing other than question funding, why on earth shouldnt his party be scrutinized and why on earth should citizens of pakistan not question both the motives and the sources of funding or use of their donations. that's LOGICAL. passing judgemental comments giving rhetorical 'don't be illogical' comments with no argument to them is the real illogical thing.

Maria | 8 years ago | Reply @lol: did you see the invoice? he confessed publicly that he stopped charging PTI for his fees. the invoice isn't the DJ fee but that of equipment including sound and lights. Nowhere does the Dawn article mention that sound and light equipment is free too. Its sort of like complaining that DJ butt said no fees yet WAPDA sent us an electricity bill. If it was this blatant lying as you make it sound like, PTI would not be making 2 person committees to look into this or have paid him 80 million rs already, since according to your calculations the cost of everything was a mere 0.5 million rs

Maria | 8 years ago | Reply @Usman: you gave the money so it can be spent on overpaying a glorified music player? Must come easy to you. The rest of us who gave 100$ or less didn't expect that or give it for that. And the 100$ or 10$ that equate to a 1000 rs or 10,000 rs often involve a pakistani expat doing a job on an hourly wage, so it means a lot to them. they sent that hard earned money back because they trusted in a party for change, even the mere ten $, and this waste of that money, if true, was a total betrayal of that trust.

Lakhkar Khan | 8 years ago | Reply @Usman: It says a lot about your judgment. This fraud "Khan" will never get a single paisa that I earned.

Bakwaas | 8 years ago | Reply Here is summary of all comments that I read: 1. DJ Butt played 6 tracks again and again. Yes frankly it sucked after a while. 2. 600K per day is insane by even international standards. 3. Why are we not paid that well? Also where in the world is FBR!!! It sucks even more. 4. Last is the common one which is @adnansiddiqi "Why don't you come and do something for Pakistan = I don't like what you say so shut up!!! Conclusion: Yes most of us feel IK has fallen short of all those claims and now that the time has passed we know clearly that Dharna was a foul game. Unfortunately emotional as we are we all fell for it because IK promised or pretended to promise a change!!! Good for him he got Rehamkhan, Good for us we will keep looking for someone like @adnansiddiqi....Cheers! Next time we will have a better DJ!

OBSERVER | 8 years ago | Reply source of funding for PTI...Mosad or Raw?

ali | 8 years ago | Reply So dj (tiesto) butt charges 0.6 million per day for just playing same songs over again

masoom | 8 years ago | Reply Very expensive music Ik has hired to build Naya PAKISTAN , but that build naya BANIGALA!

Tyrion | 8 years ago | Reply @Adnan Siddiqi: By looking at your excitement, looks like eid came out early for you!!!!

Usman | 8 years ago | Reply @Ali S: @Adnan Siddiqi: Allow me to tell you where the money came from, it came from Pakistanis who care about their country in Pakistan and in Saudi Arabia,UAE,UK,USA,Canada,Italy,France,Norway,Denmark,Germany and Australia where 10 dollars,pounds,euro equal 1000 rupees. I myself gave $100

smj | 8 years ago | Reply DJ Butt has not bring revolution hence no payment !!

Nabil | 8 years ago | Reply 6 mil per day...Time to become a dj

Adnan Siddiqi | 8 years ago | Reply DJ Butt is just the tip of the iceberg. Just wait for the generator, lighting, food, transportation folks to claim their outstanding as well some specialized professionals contracted to bring rented crowds.

Ali | 8 years ago | Reply Is this a news? Luckily he didnt have to deal with any other political party. He would have been dealt a lot differently and it wouldnt have made a news.

Abubakar | 8 years ago | Reply @Adnan Siddiqi: Dude you deserve rulers like MQM or Nawaz who dont even know how to run a small company. Grow up and look around the world.

Real Truth | 8 years ago | Reply Perhaps, PTI's agreement with DJ Butt for payment of his fees was conditional upon the 3rd umpire raising his finger, since that did not happen, poor DJ is out of luck!!! BTW, looking at how much PTI was paying this guy, I think most of us are in the wrong business :-)

H Chaudhry | 8 years ago | Reply @Hammad and Others People referencing what DJ Butt said in some news story does not take precedence on his contract with PTI. This has nothing to do with N League so spare them. It is pure mismangement and lack of respoect for money by Imran / PTI to give some one like a DJ this kind of money. Hoping PTI resolve this but knowing 50-60 Crore are given to a DJ butt, FBR needs to take action and I think its time to demand where this money is coming from ? If this is from hard earned earning of PTI followers who contribute to Khan campaign, its time to take a step back and think about use of the money.

xor | 8 years ago | Reply obvious troll @Adnan Siddiqi

Lakhkar Khan | 8 years ago | Reply @Ali: That is the expanse both parties agreed to. PTI goons should pay up now.

Lakhkar Khan | 8 years ago | Reply @No sense: Your handle suits you well.

ROFLOL | 8 years ago | Reply @lol: Please read the full article .. As a sound engineer, I was charging Rs35,000 per day until August 30. DJ Butt clarified that while he is not being paid for his services, the PTI management is continuing to pay his staff (& Equipment)

Abdullah | 8 years ago | Reply @Adnan Siddiqi: No doubt you have evidence of your allegation since you wouldn't lie during Ramzan right?

Hammad | 8 years ago | Reply DJ Butt with his 3rd class DJing skills. He was charging 35k per day, then how come suddenly the graph went so high that it reached 110 millions? Simply multiply 35k with the days of dharna and you will not get more than 6000000 PKR. Moreover, bhai jaan also refused to charge a penny in Josh-e-Khitabat. . . He killed us playing the same 6 tracks again and again without any intelligent mixing or sound effects then what sort of DG he is? How can he call him a DJ? has he ever listened to the actual DJs in Dubai and other parts of the world? No doubt, PTI is really stupid if they hire this crap on this much high rate for playing 6 abrupt chunks of songs.

Usman | 8 years ago | Reply Stop wasting our time with such illogical comment of yours .. All you pakistanis know is to blame FUNDING .. Do something about this country rather than blogging ur nonsense @Adnan Siddiqi:

Fahad | 8 years ago | Reply FBR should look into DJ's past tax reports. If he charges Rs 600000 per day, the events he had been part of since he started his business. If he has evaded taxes he needs to pay up

Adnan Siddiqi | 8 years ago | Reply Just imagine how many poor cancer patients could have been treated with Rs. 140 million. Niazi and the BOD of SKMH should be ashamed that the donations, zakat, sadqa and fitra solicited in the name of curing patients was eventually used to fund such fasadi political entertainment.

Adnan Siddiqi | 8 years ago | Reply Those yapping against Metro day in day out should now be ashamed to the core on such a whopping amount payable to just one person whose only job was to operate a laptop and jam some senseless songs through a couple of speakers. As long as a loser like Naeem Ul Haq is in-charge of everything that happens in PTI, such comical moments will continue to unravel on a daily basis.

RMQ | 8 years ago | Reply another attempt to malign PTI and IK. All of you commenting here, first check the link posted above. And I still remember the day when this was reported in the media. http://www.dawn.com/news/1139811 Our Nation's Memory is really short, and short term memory tends to erode completely. Which allows the corrupt mafia to keep abusing you left right and center.

Ch. Allah Daad | 8 years ago | Reply The music played by DJ Butt was not his property. Did he pay royalty to singers and musicians whose music was played? I think by disclosing his huge earnings, he has exposed himself to singers, musicians and revenue department who must have thought that a leader who lives on others money must be having another free ride from DJ Butt.

Uzair Latif | 8 years ago | Reply 600,000 daily for sound only. Damn! Another example of how this country is going nowhere. 600,000 for managing sound per day but less than even 60,000 per month for highly qualified professionals like engineers, doctors etc making a difference in peoples lives.

Jibran | 8 years ago | Reply This is just one expense and only the tip of the iceberg. What about other expenses? How much PTI ended up spending in total? How much ended up in the pockets of the party leaders? Where all this massive amount of money had come from? What promises were made to the sponsors? The entire dharna needs an audit.

Jibran | 8 years ago | Reply 0.6 million per day is massive. Who was behind signing him up at this rate? What was his own cut?

Jibran | 8 years ago | Reply In the end, if arm twisting fails to work, it will come from ISI's discretionary funds.

Sceptic | 8 years ago | Reply Abhi tu party shuru hoee hai, says DJ Butt. The rats have started jumping the ship. They want an honest man to captain the ship as it seems to be going around and around in an unending series of u-turns. A big ship but nowhere to go.

Ali | 8 years ago | Reply Who he thinks he is "DJ Hardwell"?

XY | 8 years ago | Reply Ah oh......trouble in paradise

No sense | 8 years ago | Reply The media should be the first to taken to the dock for reeking millions through agenda driven reporting. What is the significance of this report?

Ali S | 8 years ago | Reply His DAILY pay for manning a laptop and a mixer was 0.6 MILLION (6 LAKH RS) PER DAY?! That's 6000 USD a day, I'm sure not even well-known DJs in the USA charge this much. DJ Butt has already made 5 crores from PTI's budget. What kind of ridiculous things was IK spending money on during his dharna? And where did all this money come from?

Adnan Siddiqi | 8 years ago | Reply @lol: PTI cult followers are a unique lot. So after Javed Hashmi, it's D.J. Butt the once Hafeez Jalandahri of Naya Pakistan to face the wrath.

Adnan Siddiqi | 8 years ago | Reply Simply vow!!!! Source of funding please? It isn't coming out of Niazi's pocket for sure who does not even have the habit of buying the eggs he eats for breakfast. If such expenses are paid for from the donations given by PTI supporters, then this nuisance is just about enough to open their eyes.

lol | 8 years ago | Reply Unfortunate for DJ Butt that he has already confessed publicly that he stopped charging PTI after 15 days of dharna (link here: http://www.dawn.com/news/1139811) Do some simple math and that adds up to Rs. 5.6 Lakh only. Dj Butt is lying to put it simply. All of this reeks of a desperate defamation campaign. I know you're staunch supporters of freedom of speech ET so I hope you wont censor my comment

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