A Pakistani music video ridiculing the powerful military, inflation and systemic violence has gone viral on the Internet, racking up more than 85,000 hits, days after being posted on YouTube. Produced by little-known pop group Beygairat Brigade, or Shameless Brigade, the song “Aalu Anday” mocks the raft of political leaders but breaks ground in daring to lampoon Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani. “With such hullabaloo about the extension, the chief has gone into hibernation,” they croon, referring to his three-year extension in the job and apparent refusal of US demands for tougher action on Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants. The song criticises the outcry of popular support for the policeman who shot dead liberal politician Salman Taseer.
It refers also to cleric Abdul Aziz, who fled a government siege on the Lal Masjid in Islamabad in 2007, as the Mullah who “escaped in a veil” and says Pakistan’s late Nobel Prize winner Abdus Salam was a “forgotten tale.” The singers hold up different placards in the video, one of which says “This video is sponsored by the Zionists”. At the end, the lead singer appears with a poster saying: “If you want a bullet through my head, ‘like’ this video.”
