Pakistani singer Abrar Ul Haq has shared the story behind ‘Nach Punjaban’, one of his most famous songs, recalling the moment it came together.
Speaking during his appearance on a YouTube channel, Abrar said that he was in the middle of already writing the song when the idea took shape.
“We were making a song… ‘Meri cycle holi chal di si, main gaddi full paghawan ga, cycle te bande do bande, main poori qoum bitha manga…’,” he said, recalling that he asked his cousin for his honest feedback.
“I asked him, Tipu, how is it?” to which he replied it was good but the Punjabi touch “wasn’t coming”.
Abrar said the comment pushed him to rework the track’s sound until he landed on the effect that became one of the song’s signatures. “I came up with thora jeya ganay nu dede Punjabi touch… [and then] thora jeya music nu dede Punjabi touch,” he said.
“So this Punjabi touch came from there. That is how this song was created,” he concluded.
Abrar rose to fame in 1995 with his debut album ‘Billo De Ghar’, which sold over 16 million copies worldwide and earned him the title “King of Pakistani pop and bhangra”.
Before turning to music, he worked as a teacher in Lahore. His follow-up hits, including ‘Nach Punjaban’, ‘Majajan’, ‘Jugg Jugg Jeeyo’ and ‘Sar Jalaingay’, cemented his status as one of the pioneers of bhangra music in Pakistan.
Nach Punjaban itself became the subject of controversy in the early 2000s after some listeners felt the casual use of the word ‘Punjaban’ was disrespectful to Punjabi women, prompting Abrar to re-record the track as “Nach Majajan.”
Beyond music, he founded the Sahara for Life Trust in 1998, a charity providing health services in different parts of the country, and briefly entered politics as a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker before stepping away from the party in 2023.
