Ali Zafar, Patari push back Meesha Shafi’s brother’s latest track?

Six core members of team Patari resigned from the music streaming site Patari, issuing a public statement announcing their decision. Following their claims, evidence has surfaced questioning Patari’s work ethics and unfair treatment towards artists.

A source within Patari shared a screenshot of an internal communication within the company that indicates that Ali Zafar uses his power to place tracks on the site. The song it is referring to is a collaboration between Faris Shafi (Meesha Shafi’s brother) and Ali Sethi.

According to the screenshot, the request made by Ali Zafar was fulfilled by Patari, and Faris Shafi’s track was moved.

Speaking to Images, Faris Shafi and Ali Sethi said, “We are dismayed by this blatant manipulation of a national musical platform. It forces us to reconsider working with Patari in the future.”

Ali Zafar, however, has not commented yet. He was accused of sexual misbehaviour by fellow artist Meesha Shafi earlier this year. While it is yet to be found if he’s guilty or not, the recent screenshots make one wonder despite the music of his film not being hosted on the site.

Images also reported:

“Given the ongoing case involving Ali Zafar and Meesha Shafi, and Patari’s own situation with respect to Khalid Bajwa, there was a debate on whether Teefa in Trouble’s music should be hosted on Patari. The debate also brought forward considerations about others that had worked on that track but had no involvement with the case; however, ultimately a call was made to not host Teefa in Trouble’s music on Patari.”

Speaking of Faris’ track being reloacted, Patari’s interim CEO Rabeel Warraich added,

“There was a separate matter relating to the placement of the song tile of Faris’ song on the Patari App. There was again an internal debate which resulted in a call to temporarily move Faris’ song tile off the home page, so as to provide the company with the time and space to engage with the aggregator that provided us with the music, and explain to them the thought process behind the decision which was not personally targeted. After communication with the partner, Faris’ song was scheduled to be reinstated. It is important to note that, Faris’ track always remained on the platform and is still featured in the ‘New Releases’, on the app’s landing page, throughout this debate.”

Stay tuned for more updates.