Renowned pop star turned televangelist Junaid Jamshed died, along with his second wife, in a plane crash near Havelian on Dec 7, as we were going into print. He was on board PIA flight PK661, on its way from Chitral to Islamabad. There were 47 people on board, including the flight crew, none of whom survived.

Jamshed shot to fame as the young lead vocalist for Pakistan’s first pop band, Vital Signs, in the late 1980s. The band reached an iconic status. Along with Rohail Hyatt, Shahi and later Salman Ahmed, he was a member of a group of young musicians that became the heartthrob of the entire nation throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Of the many successful songs that Vital Signs composed, the patriotic track Dil Dil Pakistan assumed an anthem-like status.

For more than a decade, Jamshed had been drawn to religious learning. He joined a tableeghi group which traveled to different places in the country and abroad to preach Islam. It is believed that he was on one such mission after which he boarded the fateful flight on Dec 7. May he rest in peace!

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, December 12th, 2016