Pakistan army media wing draws mockery over Mecca defence pact song
Pakistan’s military media wing has come under ridicule after a seven-minute song celebrating a defence pact signed in Mecca between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey was circulated almost as soon as the agreement was announced. The track, which mixes Arabic, Urdu and Turkish, casts the three countries as brothers.
The reaction was swift. Pakistani journalist Shahbaz Gill, speaking on his YouTube channel, said viewers might laugh but the account was real. He framed the release as an odd response to a security accord that, on the face of it, would have been expected to produce hard military signals, not music.
Instruments, not hardware
Gill mocked the idea that Pakistan’s first contribution after the deal was not fighter jets, submarines or missiles, but a batch of musical instruments. He listed dholaks, tablas, harmoniums, flutes, alghozas, shehnais, sarangis, rubabs, sitars, chimta, manjiras, tangporas, ektaras, nagaras, kartals and damrus among the items he said were transferred.
The tone of his comments was blunt. He told his audience to fear God.
The song itself, according to the report, runs about seven minutes and celebrates the relationship between the three countries. It landed as a curious add-on to a pact whose political meaning extends well beyond a single performance piece.
Military messaging, old and new
Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations, the army’s media wing, has long been a central channel for the country’s military messaging. In recent days it has also been active on sharply different fronts. The military used it to respond angrily after India’s army chief issued a threat that Pakistan said crossed a line. The same media wing has also been used to publicise talks between Pakistan’s army chief and visiting US lawmakers on regional security and economic cooperation.
That wider backdrop matters. Pakistan’s military leadership has been working multiple diplomatic and security channels at once, from contacts with American lawmakers to reported mediation efforts in the Middle East. The song, though, pushed the media wing into a very different kind of spotlight.
And for now, the clip is doing the rounds for its surreal contrast: a defence pact signed in Mecca, a pile of instruments, and a seven-minute anthem in three languages. Not the sort of launch anyone expected.
