He was the voice of a generation in Pakistan. Then pop singer Junaid Jamshed found God
As a pop icon, Junaid Jamshed, who died in a plane crash last week, offered new hope for Pakistan through his uplifting pop songs – before he turned his back on it all to become an Islamist evangelist
Junaid Jamshed was the voice of a generation of Pakistanis in the 1990s, as the country emerged from a decade of Islamist policies that had stifled liberal music and culture. His band’s song Dil Dil Pakistan (Heart Heart Pakistan) became a second national anthem, its upbeat video aired endlessly on television in an era before satellite channels or YouTube.
But Jamshed was uncomfortable with fame, and after a decade as a pop icon he ditched his stonewashed jeans for clerical robes and joined an Islamist movement. The transformation astonished his fans. But in many ways Jamshed’s life encapsulated the long struggle in Pakistan – an overwhelmingly Muslim nation of 180 million people – between secularism and orthodox Islam.
The 52-year-old Jamshed was returning from a preaching tour last Wednesday when the twin-engine Pakistan International Airlines plane he was flying in crashed into a hillside, killing all 48 passengers and crew members aboard.