PESHAWAR: Haroon Bacha, a noted Pashto folksinger has recently launched his Pashto ghazal album titled ‘Gulrang’, the fiftieth in the run in his 25-year music career. Hailing from Swabi, Panjpir village, he did his graduation from Edwardes College, Peshawar, and later received master’s degree in social work from the University of Peshawar in 1994.

Afsarul Mulk Afghan, chairman of Da Ranra Malgari, told Dawn that events would be soon held in Peshawar and Kabul to celebrate the silver jubilee and golden jubilee of Haroon Bacha’s contributions to Pashto music.

He said that Mr Bacha had numerous fans wherever Pashtun community lived in the world. He said that Pashto folk music found new expression in the velvety voice of Mr Bacha who influenced young generation to appreciate Pashto music.

Master Ali Haider, a senior music director, told this scribe that with the entry of Haroon Bacha over two decades ago, Pashto music had scaled new heights of success. He said that Mr Bacha had set new trends in music while at the same time kept intact the original flavour of the folk music. He said that Mr Bacha had never compromised on quality poetry and music composition.

Launches his ghazal album ‘Gulrang’

Fans and friends of Mr Bacha have planned to celebrate silver jubilee of his music career and golden jubilee of his album charts after Eid. Karan Khan, popular young Pashto folksinger, told Dawn that soon fans and music lovers of Mr Bacha would gather in Peshawar to pay a befitting tribute to him for his contribution to Pashto music.

“Haroon Bacha is my spiritual mentor and an icon of modern Pashto music. His new style of singing Pashto Tapa brought about a significant change in traditional orchestra and way of expression,” he stated.

The golden jubilee Pashto album contains ghazals of Dr Khaliq Ziar, Sahib Shah Sabir, Arif Tabassum, Pir Mohammad Karwan, Mumtaz Orakzai, Syed Shah Saud, and Maiwand Fida with a music orchestra of Waqar Atal, Shaukat Paniyal, Yammi Khan, Asif Hussain, Javed and Ali Imran. The new album would also be formally released in Quetta, Karachi, Islamabad and Kabul, said Mr Khan.

He had a penchant for music and after getting a clandestine permission from his family he launched his career in singing with an innovative tone. He had started his professional music career in 1992 with his maiden performance on PTV, Peshawar Centre.

According to fans of Mr Bacha, the current year was set to mark silver jubilee of his professional music career and golden jubilee of his Pashto albums. His first Pashto album ‘Da Ranguno Makham’ was released in 1996. Bacha’s music career received a serious blow when militants threatened him to quit music in August, 2008 which forced him to seek asylum in the US, but continued contributing to Pashto music in one form or the other.

In a recent interview during his visit to Kabul, he told media persons that he had been working with a foreign Pashto radio since 2009 and had almost no time to release his music album. However, he said he had sliced time out of his tight schedule to contribute to Pashto music.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2017