ISLAMABAD: The only major Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) detainee to be brought to the district courts on Saturday was Asif Nazar Butt, better known as the sound engineer DJ Butt.
But in an exclusive interview to Dawn, the DJ apparently betrayed the trust of his adoring fans and supporters within the party by admitting that he was a ‘hired gun’ and would work for anyone, including the ruling party, if they paid him well enough.
Police produced the DJ in a room on the first floor of the Excise and Taxation Office (ETO), adjacent to the district courts building in Sector F-8 and the premises were declared a courtroom. This was done ostensibly to dodge the mob of PTI supporters who were wreaking havoc outside the court premises at the time.
Special magistrate retired Captain Waqas Rasheed, who was supposed to grant the remand, locked the temporary courtroom and was seen walking outside.
Nearly half a dozen attorneys from the PTI’s lawyers’ forum, including regional presidents Shiraz Ranjha and Farrukh Dall, remained with DJ Butt and conveyed to him messages from their party chief Imran Khan to boost his morale.
Police trick PTI supporters, produce sound engineer in building adjacent to district courts
Talking to Dawn, Butt said that he was a professional sound engineer and had been working with the party since 2011. Narrating the details of his arrest, Butt said that on September 12 at about 3:30am, he was in a rest house in Sector G-6/4, located near the PTI’s Central Secretariat, when half a dozen policemen knocked on his door.
“When I opened the door, they booked me and moved me to an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) parked outside.”
“They blindfolded me and shifted me to a police station, then they brought me to Golra police station,” he added.
“They provided me substandard food and kept me in miserable conditions to teach me a lesson, just because I played music at the PTI sit-in,” he alleged.
While DJ Butt was in handcuffs when this reporter met him, he had complete liberty to use his mobile phone and remained in contact not only with the PTI leadership, but also with various news channels and kept giving them ‘beepers’ on his arrest.
He said that his unbeatable skills in operating the sound system kept protesters on Constitution Avenue charged and that his work was even appreciated by party chief Imran Khan. This was why the government ordered his arrest, he claimed.
The DJ revealed that he had no loyalties to the party he was facilitating, saying that he was a ‘hired gun’. “Providing these services is part of my job. I am ready to work for the PML-N too, if they pay me well enough,” the sound engineer said.
But DJ Butt looked upset due to the absence of the special magistrate, which forced him to wait the narrow, congested corridor outside the magistrate’s room. The heat and humidity apparently got to the dandy DJ, who looked profusely sweaty while sitting in the Taxation Office.
The special magistrate, it turned out, was waiting outside the courtroom and was monitoring the angry PTI workers who were damaging police vehicles outside. Though the workers were few in number, they continued chanting anti-government slogans and kept things tense.
While this was going on outside, the magistrate quietly ordered that the arrested individuals be sent on judicial remand.
Detention extended
The detention of Gullu Butt was extended on Saturday for another month.
District Coordination Officer Mohammad Usman had proposed detention of Gullu Butt, an accused allegedly involved in damaging vehicles of the people in Model Town incident, for another month.
DCO’s spokesman Tariq Zaman confirmed to Dawn that Mr Usman had written to the home department to extend detention of Gullu Butt through 30 MPO for one month. Butt is currently detained at Kot Lakhpat Jail.
DJ Butt arrested in Islamabad
ISLAMABAD: DJ Butt, the man of the musical hour at Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's (PTI) rallies, was arrested on Friday from Islamabad’s Constitution Avenue.
Sources told Dawn that DJ Butt was arrested in the wee hours of Friday at around 4 am.
Central Information Secretary PTI Dr Shireen Mazari condemned the arrest of DJ Butt who she said was arrested from the Guest House where he was staying. She also condemned “the arrest of other workers from different parts of Islamabad”.
Mazari said “no law had been broken by DJ Butt who merely looked after the sound system at the Azadi dharna”. She demanded that DJ Butt and other party workers arrested by the government be released immediately.
She said the government should remove all containers from Islamabad, adding that IHC had already passed an order to that effect.
PTI also took to its Twitter account and demanded the release of Butt along with other party workers.
Butt, who comes from a musically inclined family, had met PTI chairman Imran Khan for the first time on April 22, 2011, a couple of days before his massive sit-in in Peshawar. From there onwards, his career took off as a DJ for PTI rallies and it hasn't looked back since.
The PTI has been protesting against alleged rigging in the 2013 elections and has also demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif whose government it calls the outcome of a rigged election. As of now, the party is currently engaged in talks with the federal government to broker a settlement over the political impasse that had gripped the country for weeks.
ISLAMABAD: While a few members of the Butt community have made headlines for crashing protests, there is a certain Butt whose presence at a Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) rally is palpable and celebrated.
From Khyber to Karachi, DJ Asif Butt is the man of the musical hour at any PTI rally, and thegana bajana and soaring entertainment quotient at the ongoing sit-in at D-chowk is no exception.
"At first, people didn't care about me because I came from a low-income background, I was a commoner. However, that perception has changed tremendously," DJ Butt tells Dawn, shouting over the thunderous cheers of supporters and deafening music.
"It feels good to know that people know me now."
With a mix of regional and Urdu music, Butt says he gauges the mood and mix of the crowd when preparing a playlist. “For this sit-in, I am playing Pashto music [as well] as a lot of participants are from K-P.”
“The playlist is not the same each time. It's eclectic and depends upon the mood of the rally. The crowd is always cheering madly — Khan sahib has gained a tremendous fan following because of my music.”
Butt describes his flair as an “innate skill cultivated over the years”. He terms himself the (musical) pilot of the PTI ship.
“Prior to a sit-in, I compile the entire list of songs which I intend to play but the collection and selection is my own,” he says. “The songs are finalised after extensive research on all kinds of human emotions… I play songs which will be most appropriate to the mood of a particular rally."
Closing in on two weeks, the ongoing PTI sit-in at D-chowk has been the highest revenue-making stint of Butt’s career. While he is tight-lipped about numbers, he does say the money made from playing music at rallies is more than enough to sustain him.
“I make enough money from PTI jalsas — so much that I don’t need to play anywhere else,” he says with pride.
Butt's talent and prowess at bringing a crowd to fever pitch is also given due credit and respect; he is the one making the call for when PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s fiery speeches are to be punctuated by bursts of music.
“No one gives me any cues. It’s my call and I know when to start or stop the music. Speakers don’t know when they will be cut off during their speech at any given point,” Butt says.
Despite numerous flyers emblazoned with DJ Butt’s name and cellphone number featuring at PTI rallies, his encounters with Imran are however, limited. “The only time I met Imran Khan was on April 22, 2011, a couple of days before his massive sit-in in Peshawar. I was given two tracks and then it was up to me to figure out how to get the crowd going.”
“However, I believe that we are both on the same page when it comes to music,” he says confidently.
Dance with DJ Butt
Behind the dhol dhamaka and halla gulla of every Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) sit-in and rally, behind the spectacle that makes all dance to the tune of party chief Imran Khan is one man: DJ Butt.
Anointed as the “official sound engineer” by none other than Imran Khan, DJ Butt — whose real name is Asif Butt — is a classic rags-to-riches fantasy: hailing from a low-income household, he worked his way to becoming a “millionaire,” a sought-after disc jockey and café owner.
Butt’s first meeting with Imran Khan was in 2011, he tells me, soon after greeting me with a hug as I entered his office in Model Town, Lahore. It was a life-defining moment for him. “Khan Sahib and I met for the first time in April 2011, a couple of days before his massive sit-in in Peshawar and discussed how we’ll go about it. I was given two tracks about the PTI, and the rest was up to me,” he says.
“Those are not any other instrumental tracks. They were finalised after a lot of research for all kinds of emotions. Khan Sahib agar drones ki baat karain gay to mein sad music play karoon ga. Agar unity ki baat karain gay to national song daal doon ga,” Butt goes on while showing me a folder in his laptop that had all the songs and clips he plays for the PTI. “People started crying when I played a sad instrumental track while Khan sahib was talking about drones and the people killed.”
Thanks to DJ Butt, PTI leaders manage to conveniently address large crowds. He is the man who sneaks in national and devotional songs during speeches: from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan to Junoon to Ataullah Eesa Khelvi to some tracks especially created by Yousaf Salahuddin. He even plays some of the music as we talk. This, he says, is a pre-planned strategy though no speaker knows at what point they’d be cut off.
Oh, and the playlist is not the same every time, mind you.
Butt is a larger-than-life personality. He sports long locks, and on the day I met him, he was clad in a white shirt, a black biker jacket and cowboy boots. A ‘DJ Butt’ pendant hangs from his neck, almost to emphasise his quirky nature. Not to forget his yellow-coloured Honda Civic, a parrot green Suzuki Mehran, and a red Siera — all with ‘DJ Butt’ number plates, parked outside the coffee bar.
Before I could ask him why he was so dressed up, Asif informs me that he has just returned from an appearance on a private channel’s morning show. We sat down on black and red rexine sofas, with multi-coloured disco lights hovering over us. I guess I underestimated the “office” of arguably one of the most popular DJs in Lahore. But clearly, DJ Butt loves his little kingdom — an office that doubles up as a coffee shop, named Butt Coffee Bar (BCB). The sound equipment business is booming: Asif Butt sells and rents out sound equipment, while his brother produces and assembles all equipment. All this has come with years of experience, and “meri maa ki duayen”.
Butt has his many mobile phones and a laptop, all set on the table in front of us. As soon as we’re seated, he Googles himself to show me how much he has been written about, and that “Google toh sab janta hai”. He has a Facebook presence, he is on Twitter, and he keeps a constant check on what the media is saying about him. He also shows me the morning show episode he had just returned from. The guy is quite tech-savvy, let me tell you. I was impressed, I must admit.
Things weren’t always as glamorous or expansive for DJ Butt. I recall seeing his shop from afar whenever I would visit the market as a teenager, since we used to live in the area some years ago. I decided to ask DJ Butt about his “very humble beginnings”. Turns out, DJing wasn’t the beginning of his story.
Asif Butt worked as a helper at a coffee shop in the same market in 1996, after which the owners sold the machines to the Butt brothers and they started their own little coffee corner called BCB. Asif was a typical Lahori youngster, biking around with his “gang of bikers” in the day and selling coffee in the evening.
“I used to play music at the coffee shop, which a lot of my customers and shopkeepers around liked. They encouraged me to become a DJ. Then there was a wedding where I was asked to play. I just took my entire collection from the shop, rented a music system, and played there. In no time, I had DJed at around 20 weddings,” he recalls.
“It was in 2004 that I bought my own imported system. That’s when “DJ Butt” — the company — was born. I had also mentored one of my boys by then. We had our own equipment, MashaAllah, and were doing weddings, parties, launches, all sorts of events.”
So, how did he clinch this ‘life-changing’ deal with PTI, I ask him.
“I was introduced to the PTI by a friend of Captain Hassan Bilal, an assistant of Imran Khan’s brother-in-law Saifullah Khan Niazi, a few days before the 2011 sit-in in Peshawar. Capt Bilal then set up a meeting between Khan Sahib and me, and that was the beginning of my journey with the PTI,” he tracks his path to instant superstardom.
DJ Butt says he has managed all of the party's big dharnas and rallies, from the one at Minar-i-Pakistan in Lahore to the recent anti-drone sit-in in Peshawar. “Log kehtay hain DJ Butt music kyun bajata hai speeches nahi sunnay deta (People ask me why I play music and not let them listen to speeches). But Khan Sahib became very popular because of this trend.”
We are interrupted by a call on DJ Butt’s mobile phone, that he cancels, and visibly distracted, offers me something to drink. Not being able to resist the urge, I tell him that since he runs a coffee business, I won’t leave without sipping the coffee they brew.
Satisfied with my response, Butt turns to the March 23 PTI rally at Minar-i-Pakistan.
“Mera 14 saal ka career aik taraf aur vo din aik taraf,” he says, with a glint in his eye. For Butt, that one day gave him recognition of a lifetime. He then summons one of his “chhotas” and asks him to bring another of his many laptops, on which he shows me pictures of the Minar-i-Pakistan rally.
Butt then narrates the PTI’s journey to Waziristan, and how for the first time, he had managed nine trucks of sound equipment. He says that it was the first time he used a self-developed wireless system, through which he controlled all the equipment by just sitting in the “General’s Truck” (referring to the vehicle he travels in with all the equipment for a rally).
“PTI has given me so much respect, recognition and appreciation for my work that I’d always be grateful to them,” he says shyly when I ask him if he has ever got a response after a successful rally. With a twinkle in his eyes he then tells me how his “whole life changed” when after the Peshawar event, the very next day, he got a call from Khan Sahib himself, saying, ‘Butt, mein tum se bohot khush hoon (emulating the signature IK style). Tum ne mera jalsa kamyaab kara diya (I’m very happy you made my rally a success). Aaj se tum meray official sound engineer ho’”.
Another call disrupts our conversation. Once again, Butt declines the call.
DJ Butt then proudly tells me how he played the national anthem and had the Pakistani flag waved at a PTI gathering in Quetta where “they don’t hoist the national flag or play the anthem. I did all this.” However, he goes on to say, this was also his most difficult event as it rained for six straight hours, followed closely by the one in Lahore on March 23. He then shows me pictures of what happened before and after both the rallies.
In fact, DJ Butt has pictures of each and every event he has graced with his presence: before, during and after. And he keeps showing me pictures (some on his Facebook page) of whatever we talk about: PTI rallies and sit-ins, Dr Tahirul Qadri’s rallies, Metro Bus Service launch, and so on. What amazes me is his memory: he remembered the exact dates of all major PTI events he had managed.
But then what of the Metro Bus Service launch, I ask, confused about his political leanings. Who did he support — the PTI or the PML-N? He cuts me short with “PTI, who else?” But almost instantly, remarks that he was never into politics and doesn’t even want to be.
“I have been working for a long time. I also worked with PML-N. But I was never appreciated. Once I even got a call [from someone in PML-N] taunting me about paying so much attention to PTI. I told him they were giving me business, paying me good money, so what else would a man from a poor family want? I had limited popularity as a DJ earlier, but now, after appearing on television during PTI rallies, I’ve got double the recognition. I have numbers of all major party leaders: Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Jahangir Tareen, Aleem Khan, Imran Khan Sahib. Some even call to appreciate me after an event. This really encourages me. I can say I’m a PTI family member now.”
Is he exclusive to PTI and is he allowed by the party to work for anyone else?
DJ Butt cites the case of Dr Tahirul Qadri — a man he had first worked with in 2007, managing sound engineering for a mega rally at Minar-i-Pakistan. This was DJ Butt’s first experience of managing a mega-event, which he claimed, attracted almost 200,000-300,000 people.
Dr Qadri rang him up again during the (in) famous sit-in in Islamabad before the polls, pleading “mera gala baith gaya hai aa k sambhalo.” Butt had little choice but to turn to his party for advice.
“When I asked for permission from the PTI about doing the event, I was told, ‘tum aik dukandar ho, businessman ho. Tumhe jo paisay day, us k liye kaam karo (You’re a shopkeeper, a businessman)’. So I work for everyone, whoever pays me, of course.”
Has being affiliated with the PTI got him more work? A straight ‘no’ shoots the reply. “People stop and ask me if I’m DJ Butt, but that’s it,” he solemnly says. “PTI gives me enough work, and I already have a lot on my plate, so I also have to refuse some clients.”
Amazingly, he says, he has received calls even during live rallies because his name and number are plastered on the dice on stage and it’s all over the TV. He is still among the most in-demand disc jockeys in Lahore. He also travels to other cities and countries for ‘special clients’ who want him to assemble their equipment or advise them, or even play at their weddings.
Butt remains a man inspired by innovation and the love of his craft, sound engineering. “DJ Butt jo introduce karata hai vo cheez brand ban jati hai,” he boasts, explaining how he started using a special kind of microphone that no one else in Pakistan was using at that time.
Experience of event management has taught him much. After his first few events, DJ Butt — the professional and experienced manager that he is — ensure that he has six to seven back-ups for everything. “The crystal clear audio you hear on television is because of me and my equipment. If a wire doesn’t work, I’ll use wireless. If wireless doesn’t work, I’ll use a wire. So I have back-up for everything every time, and all this I’ve learnt with experience and setbacks faced earlier.”
Butt has also been taking classes and courses from teachers in Thailand and China since 2008. Once he absorbs technical knowledge, he returns home to train his men, deliver lectures, administers written and oral tests, and makes them practice for a couple of years.
Any worries or problems, I ask him.
“Imran Khan Sahib ke jalsay pe Imran Khan sahib hi bachatay hain,” he quips and shows me a picture of how he had covered his speakers with a large panaflex with a picture of Imran Khan on it. He adds he suffered a loss of Rs2.7 million. “Khan Sahib called me the next day, asked how much the loss was. He reimbursed all of it.”
I’m tempted to ask him who he feels delivers the best speech, besides Imran Khan, of course. “Shah Mehmood Qureshi Sahib. The rest mostly copy Khan Sahib,” Butt says with a laugh.
Of course, there is always DJ Butt’s playlist to cut a leader off if he doesn’t impress.
Life and times of DJ Butt
DJ Butt is a famous Pakistani Disc Jockey, musician, political activist, environmentalist, stamp-collector, Twitter troll and amateur nuclear physicist.
Butt is also related to two of Pakistan’s leading musclemen and moustache enthusiasts, Gullu Butt and Pomi Butt, and two inner ring leaders of Deepak Chopra’s Smiling Dollar Cult, Mahesh Bhatt and Pojja Bhatt.
DJ Butt (real name DJ Butt) was born in Lahore in 1987 (even though he insists he was born in 1857). Butt koh dj-ing ka bachpan hi sey shouk tha and he built his first dj-ing equipment when he was just 3 years old.
Talking to the Readers Digest in 2013, Butt said:
"Mixing and dj-ing came naturally to me and one night when I was 3, I had a dream in which I saw Imran Khan coming in to bowl to an enemy batsman at Lahore’s Qaddafi Stadium and the whole stadium was filled with some 7.2 million people, all chanting, 'Go, Nawaz, Go! Go, Nawaz Go!' Mujey dj-ing ka bachpan hi sey shouk tha."
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DJ Butt’s first music-mixing machine. It could also toast bread.
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Butt went to the prestigious Aitchison School in Lahore, whereas his cousins, Gullu and Pomi, went to the cinemas to watch violent Punjabi flicks. They used to tease DJ Butt for being a sissy, but one day when DJ Butt was just 7 years old, he blew away both Gullu and Pomi with his mix of Nazia Hassan’s ‘Disco Dewane’.
It is believed that after being blown away by the mix, Gullu and Pomi smashed DJ Butt’s mixing machine with a club (danda) making DJ Butt very sad.
Talking to the National Geographic in 2012, DJ Butt said:
‘It was heart-breaking. Gullu and Pomi arrived at my house on their tri-cycles, armed with clubs and then proceeded to smash my first ever music mixing equipment that I had built with my own two tiny hands. I cried a lot and from that day onwards, I stopped eating porridge.’
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A young Gullu Butt smashing a pumpkin in young DJ Butt’s garden.
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After completing his O' levels at Aitchison, DJ Butt, who by then had already become famous as a dj at the discothèques in Lahore’s Anarkali and Mochi Gate areas, decided to go abroad to study music.
He had already become disillusioned by the country’s politics which, in those days, was being dominated by Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N and Benazir Bhutto’s PPP.
According to Pakistani pop star, politician, revolutionary, electrician and the guy who couldn’t reach Billo’s house — Abrarul Haq — it was DJ Butt who first advised Imran Khan to join politics.
DJ Butt confirmed this while talking to the Discovery Channel in 2010. He said:
"In March 1993, I was dj-ing at a Jirga party thrown by Imran Khan at his Zaman Park resident. During a break I walked up to Khan Saab who was deep in meditation and contemplating his future after his retirement from cricket in 1992.
"I politely introduced myself and he politely took off his dark shades and then not-so-politely smacked me across the face! I was shaken a bit but continued to ask him to listen to what I had to say. He replied, 'dekho, Butt, tum koh nahi pata, sab muj hi koh pata hai…'
"I said, I know that I know nothing and that you know everything, Khan Saab, but all I wanted to say was that you and you alone can save Pakistan from corrupt politicians and turn this country in becoming an Islamic Welfare State of Scandinavia. He seemed pleased and smiled and said, 'mujey politics ka bachpan hi sey shouk tha!'"
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Initially Imran was not too enthusiastic when he was first approached by DJ Butt in 1993.
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DJ Butt flew to the United States and joined the Harvard Business School to study music. He studied even more music at the Harvard Law College and afterwards he studied Law and Business at the famous Berklee College of Music in California.
In between, he also picked up a degree in anthropology from the Harvard Medical School and a degree in Chinese Medicine from a Chinese laundrette in China Town, New York City.
It was at the Columbia University that he met Zeenat (nickname Bubbly), a 20-year-old Pakistani student who was studying the history, sociology and politics of techno and trance music at the university. DJ Butt had been invited by the university’s Dean of Economics to deliver a lecture on acupuncture.
Talking to ESPN in 2009, DJ Butt said:
"It was Bubbly who advised me to return to Pakistan and join Imran Khan’s crusade against corruption and political coherence. I said, but I’m not a politician, to which Bubbly politely took off her dark shades and not-so-politely smacked me across the face.
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Bubbly and DJ Butt at the Columbia University where Butt had been invited to deliver a lecture on acupuncture.
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"She told me to use my talents as a dj to bring change, revolution, tabdeeli, inquilaab, azadi, freedom and men with blonde wigs stamping Pakistani passports and men with frowns beating up people with cricket bats! I was inspired and asked Bubbly to marry me. She smacked me across the face again and said no.
"The very next day I returned to Pakistan and joined Imran Khan’s movement. My last words to Bubbly were, ‘frankly, my Bubbly, I don’t give a damn!’"
Since Imran Khan’s party, the PTI, was initially being guided by the right-wing Jamaat-i-Islami, many of its early members were against allowing a dj to join it.
DJ Butt responded by blowing away his detractors with his mix of ‘The Final Countdown’ – a truly awful song originally recorded by that truly awful Swedish hair-metal band, Europe.
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DJ Butt: The Hair Metal years.
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Khan loved the mix and Butt was in. He became PTI’s official DJ. It was decided that he will play his mixes at PTI rallies after every third sentence that Imran Khan spoke, and that Shireen Mazari will smack him across the face if played the music before the third sentence or after the fifth.
Initially DJ Butt struggled a bit and was regularly punched and kicked by Mazari until he finally got the hang of it. His fame grew and he was also nominated for a Grammy but he refused to attend the ceremony as a protest against US drone strikes in Yemen.
In 2012 he was contacted by one of his estranged cousins, Gullu Butt (who had become a PML-N muscleman and Shahbaz Sharif’s masseur). Gullu offered him to join the PML-N and told him that Shahbaz Sharif will make sure his name becomes part of Gunnies Book of Lahore Records.
Talking to world famous TV anchor, revolutionary, activist, film director and real estate agent, Mubasher Lucman on ARY, DJ Butt said:
"At one point I was seriously contemplating joining PML-N because mujhey Guinness Book of World Records mein aney ka bachpan hi sey shouk tha. But just as I was in a deep meditation over joining PML-N, there was a knock on the door. I opened the door and saw Bubbly standing there. She smacked me across the face and said, no! The rest, as they say, is history."
On DJ Butt's cousin: Gullu Butt: An Auto-smashing-biography
Gullu Butt is a famous automobile smasher from Pakistan. He was born in Lahore (capital of the Punjab province) to equally famous parents, Maula Jatt and Nuri Nutt.
His father, Maula Jatt, was the sheriff of a small town in the Punjab and gained popularity for arresting, jailing, flogging and dismembering a pesky motorbike that just won't start.
After dismembering the bike, Jatt set it on fire, much to the liking of the simple peace-loving townsfolk. Jatt, however, became unpopular when he tried to do the same to a horse. He was expelled from the town by the Chaudhry of the town (town elder) along with his wife, Nuri Nutt.
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Jatt right after smashing the motorbike (1974)
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Jatt and his wife moved to Lahore in 1975 and earned a meagre living by selling old spare-parts of the cars and bikes that Jatt would smash and dismantle just for the heck of it. Jatt's antics in this regard got him arrested and he was sentenced to 10 years hard labour in a Lahore jail.
Meanwhile, Nuri Nutt gave birth to their first child whom she named Gullu Butt (Rosy Butt- cheeks). Two years later Jatt was paroled and gained an early release from jail, thanks to the government of General Ziaul Haq who had taken over power in July 1977. The Zia regime considered Jatt to be a political prisoner, arrested by the fallen ZA Bhutto regime.
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Jatt soon after he was released from jail (1977)
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To celebrate his early release, Jatt smashed a car belonging to a member of Bhutto's party as the people and the police stood there watching the spectacle and marvelling at the might and passion of Jatt.
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Jatt right after smashing a car belonging to a PPP member (1978)
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Jatt and his wife were invited back to their hometown where the Chaudhry (who had quit Bhutto's party and joined the Zia regime) himself offered Jatt a horse to dismember. Instead, Jatt broke the Chaudhry's legs and once again ended up in jail. There he met Bhutto and proceeded to hang him, much to the liking of peace-loving jail folk.
Meanwhile, Nuri Nutt gave birth to their second child. She named him Jeera Blade (Gillette Razor). As Jatt lay rotting in jail, Nutt had to bring up their two sons all on her own. Sometimes when she could not earn enough money to feed and cloth her sons, she used to digress and commit theft by raiding the town's shops with a home-made rifle.
She soon became notorious and the scared townsfolk began to inexplicably call her Hasina Atombum. Nutt wanted both of her sons to get a good education and become dentists.
Jeera was an obedient son and a hard-working student and always came second-last in his class. But Gullu did not take his studies seriously. He would spend most of his time painting a fake moustache with a thick black 2B pencil on his face and smashing watermelons on the Chaudhry's farm.
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Nuri Nutt: The crime-spree years.
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After passing his matriculation (in 3rd division), Jeera tried to join the Lahore police but failed the test. He was however given an officer's post in the Lahore police after the Chaudhry pulled some strings. Gullu had threatened to beat up the Chaudhry's favorite horse.
After Jeera joined the police, Nutt stopped being Hasina Atombum. She even asked Gullu to join the police but Gullu refused. Instead, Gullu smashed the car of a small-time crook, an act that impressed a big-time crook who asked Gullu to join his gang.
The big-time crook was a gunrunner who smuggled in guns, drugs, rockets, grenades and Italian caviar from the Afghan border where he had connections with the anti-Soviet Afghan insurgents and some members of Zia's government.
Once while Jeera was fleecing a milkman on a Lahore street and asking him to pay Rs.50 or face jail, he spotted Gullu smashing a brand new car. He rushed to the spot and asked Gullu to stop.
Gullu asked: 'Merey pass jackhammer hai, cars to smash haen, plug-pana hai, tumarey pas kya hai?'
Jeera replied: Merey pas maan hai (I have mother).'
The crowd that had gathered around them applauded and some people even had a tear or two in their eyes.
Jeera and his mother shunned Gullu who had by then smashed and destroyed over 2,000 cars just for the heck of it.
Meanwhile, Jatt had acquired some basic education in jail and re-discovered faith. After he was released in 2001, he first set-up a madrassah in Lahore (which was a huge spiritual, ideological and commercial success), and then joined a TV news channel as an anchor and talk-show host.
Jeera rose to become an ASI in the police (only because his tummy was the biggest the precent) and Nutt went nuts, now claiming she was Madam Noor Jehan. She was recruited by PTI trolls.
Gullu continued to smash cars (still just for the heck of it), but from 2005 onward he tried to give a semblance of meaning to his art by smashing cars and bikes during anti-US/India/Rwanda rallies and during protests against Pakistan's gazillion enemies - especially Godzilla nurtured by famous Zionist scientist, Amrish Puri.
But, alas, this great artiste's luck finally ran out when in June 2014, while he was in the process of smashing his 5,000th car (to set a new Shahbaz Sharif-backed Guinness World Record), some jealous folks claimed that he was one of the instigators of violence against the supporters of Canadian Moose-breeder, Tahir-ul-Kennedy.
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Tahir-ul-Kennedy taking a leisurely walk outside his home in Canada.
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Gullu was arrested and booked for injuring a Toyota car and then he was himself injured when he was attacked by a group of lawyers who were otherwise famous for showering rose petals on heroic killers.
Gullu's fan-club, 'Gullu Kay Pathey', at once initiated a powerful campaign on Twitter against Gullu's arrest with such hashtags: #JusticeForGullu; #WeAreAllGulluToday; #ButtHe'sInnocent; and #JustinBieberForPresident.
Just for the heck of it.
