Islamabad - The death of Junaid Jamshed, a
Pakistani rock star-turned-evangelist, in a plane crash on
Wednesday has stirred debate over his legacy, raising questions
that cut to the heart of Pakistan's widening cultural schisms.
Jamshed, 52, was one of Pakistan's first rock stars before
abandoning music to advocate a strict interpretation of Islam
that would curtail women's freedoms.
Much of the reaction to the crash, that killed all 47 people
on a flight from northern mountains to the capital, Islamabad,
has focused on Jamshed's life, which seemed to embody a
dichotomy similar to many Pakistanis' struggle between embracing
liberal and conservative values.
Jamshed rose to fame as the heartthrob vocalist of Vital
Signs, a breakout band in the South Asian nation whose 1987 hit
"Dil Dil Pakistan" became an unofficial anthem for the country.
Melding new wave, rock and pop, Vital Signs blazed a trail
for musicians in Pakistan as it emerged from 11 years under
military ruler Zia-ul-Haq.
Many say Pakistan's lurch towards Islamic conservatism began
under Zia's programme of "Islamisation", which banned most music
performances and encouraged strict conservative values.
Back then, Vital Signs soulful songs about love, heartbreak
and disillusionment were deeply subversive. After Zia's death in
1988, the group's popularity sky-rocketed.
"The nineties were a time of transition in Pakistan, from
dictatorship to a democratic dispensation, and Junaid's music
represented the euphoria of that time," said Nadeem F. Paracha,
a cultural critic.
In 2001, however, Jamshed abandoned music to join the strict
Tableeghi Jamaat, which sends clerics across Pakistan and the
world to preach Islam.
He grew a beard and admonished young people for straying
from Islam, vowing never to sing any of his hits again.
In this new guise, Jamshed often commented that women should
not be allowed to leave the house without a male relative.
"We grew up listening to your music and grew old listening
to your sermons ... You will always be remembered," Maiza
Hameed, a lawmaker, posted on Twitter.
"DISCO MULLAH"
Many chose to remember him nostalgically for his voice and
rebellious songs that moulded the cultural identity of a
generation.
They focused on Jamshed the music star, choosing to ignore
his embrace of religious conservatism.
"Today, the last decade didn't happen," said Umair Javed, a
London-based Pakistani academic.
But Ansar Abbasi, a widely read conservative columnist,
asked media not to focus on Jamshed's music.
"Remember him as a preacher of Islam," Abbasi tweeted.
Ahmer Naqvi, another cultural critic, said many Pakistanis
were using the celebrity's death as a lens for their own
politics.
"This is a genuine national pop culture icon who straddles
several kinds of divides," he said.
Among clerics, Jamshed had his detractors, who branded him a
"disco mullah" and mocked his successful clothing brand.
In 2014, Jamshed was accused of blasphemy by a rival for
comments about a wife of Islam's Prophet Mohammad. He later
apologised.
Others chose only to share his music, both Vital Signs' many
hits and religious na'ats, poems praising the prophet.
For many, Jamshed was just trying to figure out his own
identity even as Pakistan itself was experiencing seismic
cultural and religious shifts.
"His voice was so uncomplicated," said Naqvi, of both his
singing, and his preaching. "And everything around him was
extremely complicated."