''Billo De Ghar'' () is the debut album by

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

i pop singer Abrar-ul-Haq. It was written, composed and sung by the artist and became a best selling album in

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

at the time of its release in 1995. As of 2004, over 16million copies of the album have been sold. The lyrics of the songs are in Punjabi and

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

. Although the album's title song "Billo De Ghar" is in Punjabi, only three of the album's ten tracks are in Punjabi, while the rest are in Urdu. "Billo De Ghar" describes a man trying to meet with a girl, Billo, and is harassed by an assortment of police and moralists in the process. The song became a subject of some controversy when Urdu newspapers began quoting Lahori mullahs who claimed the song describing a man falling in love with a prostitute and wanting to marry her. Upon the formation of

Nawaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (born 25 December 1949) is a Pakistani politician and businessman who served as the 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan, prime minister of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms, first serving from 1990 to 1993, then ...

PML-N The Pakistan Muslim League (N) or (PML(N)) is a Centre-right politics, centre-right, Conservatism in Pakistan, conservative political party in Pakistan. It is currently the third-largest party in the Senate of Pakistan, Senate and the larges ...

majority government after the 1997 election, the song was banned from state-owned TV and radio channels. Abrar-ul-Haq has continued to follow up on the long-standing popularity of the song since its release. His 2016 album ''Billo Returns Aithay Rakh'' offered new material for fans of the song, with the track "Aaj Bhi Billo Zinda Hai" in particular resurrecting the theme. "Murree Shehry Di Niki," is another one of the three Punjabi tracks, and is in a dialect of Punjabi called Pothohari which is mostly spoken in

Murree Murree () is a mountain resort city in the northernmost region of the Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab province of Pakistan. Lying in the Galyat region of the Pir Panjal Range under the western Himalayas, it forms the outskirts of the Islamabad–Rawal ...

Islamabad Islamabad (; , ; ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Bu ...

and

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, third-largest city in the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is a commercial and industrial hub, being the list of cities in P ...

. It may be an influence of the time Abrar spent in Islamabad for his

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Track listing

#"Billo" (a.k.a. "Billo De Ghar") #"Murree Shehry Di Niki" #"Aaja Na" #"Hum Tum Mile The" #"Sohni Surat" #"Agar Kabhi" #"Alam E Bhaghawat" #"Allah Pakistan" #"Sachian Te Koorian" #"Dil Pe Hamare Jo Chaye"

References

1995 debut albums Abrar-ul-Haq albums Punjabi-language albums Urdu-language albums {{1990s-pop-album-stub