Rafiq Shinwari

Mohammad Rafiq Shinwari (Pashto: محمد رفیق شینواری‎) was a singer and composer of Pashto music. Though he also tried his luck with Pashto poetry and wrote a few poems as well but it was his compositions for early Pashto movies that earned him a big name in this field.

A disciple of Abdul Sattar Bacha, he was brought to Bacha's abode by his mother as a child in late 1940s from Nangarhar, Afghanistan. Rafiq Shinwari started his career as a Qawali singer of Radio Pakistan Peshawar Studio in 1961. Subsequently he became a household name among the Pashtun population of both Afghanistan and Pakistan in the 1970s and 1980s. He primarily sang the Sufi Poetry of Ameer Hamza Shinwari and Rahman Baba. Himself a Sufi by heart, Ustad Shinwari used to sing in a rare husky voice, which would leave his audience in a state of trance. As a music director some of his Pashto movies include Orbal, Ehsan, Qaidi, Dameena, Topak Zama Qanoon, Iqrar, Naway Da Yawai Shpai, and Khana Badosh.[1]

Out of his two sons, namely, Shaifq and Ghulam Ali, the later committed suicide in 1988 due to unknown reasons.[2]

In 2004, the Rafiq Shinwari Ulasi award was established in his honour.[3]