Star tells pal to abandon Mush

Salman of Junoon tells former friend Bilal Musharraf to learn from Gohar Ayub Khan and urge his father to step down

LAHORE: Pakistan’s top rock star and founder of the wildly-popular Sufi rock group Junoon, Salman Ahmed, has advised his one-time fast friend and the Boston-based son of the Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to quit power in the larger interest of the nation and go home.

Salman, the United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for HIV/AIDS, became friends with Bilal Musharraf many years ago.

The ‘friendly advice’ has been given in an open letter Salman wrote to Bilal last week.  Both have exchanged heated arguments in open letters published in a number of websites recently.

Salman says he was compelled to write an open letter to Bilal after the latter accused him of outpouring venomous rhetoric against his father in a private e-mail.

Bilal writes in his letter, “I was a bit disappointed when a picture of Salman and my father that I had taken some years back appeared on Junoon’s website.

Although Salman had asked for the picture, he had not indicated that it would go on the website, let alone giving me credit! If Salman feels the need to neutralise the burden of prior public contact with my father with his venomous rhetoric, I find it not just unjust, but unfair.

Looking back, I am unable to decipher whether his motivation for prior public overtures towards my father were selfless or selfish in nature.”

Bilal’s e-mail ended with a mention of Salman’s credibility: “No one is perfect, I realise. However to the extent one can, one must try to reduce one’s integrity gap which someone defined aptly as the difference between lived values and stated values.”

In his response through an open letter, Salman writes, “My recent op-ed in the Washington Post and my public disassociation with your father should not be a surprise to you.

Like every democracy-loving citizen of Pakistan, I had to condemn the proclamation of emergency and the dismissal of the superior court judges by your father, who wants to keep ruling Pakistan by hook or by crook.

For the sake of record, my support for your father’s vision of enlightened moderation was never based on any personal expectations.

I was misled to believe that he was unlike the previous military dictators. As things stand, I can only sympathise with you as it is not easy being the son of a hated dictator.

You need to learn from Gohar Ayub Khan, the son of General Ayub Khan. It was Gohar who told his father to quit, saying enough is enough.

In my personal opinion, you too can play a role, not in the public sphere by bashing people who criticise his father. Instead, you need to sit down with your father like Gohar Ayub did almost three decades ago.

In fact, your father needs you more than ever before. I hope you won’t take my letter as any kind of a cynical attack. It is just good-hearted advice for the good of the nation and for you and your father.”