For every nation, every new generation holds the promise of a better tomorrow. A popular cold-war strategy among nations is to target the youth of one’s foes to make them vulnerable to corruption and hence weaken it from the inside.

In the past decade, Pakistan has opened up to the new world order or the concepts of the global village, as many like to dub it. Although the boons have been many, it also has its fair share of banes, such as new family values which have led to the new age of the nuclear family where independent family units are so engrossed in the business of making money and holding separate jobs to provide modern-day comforts that they and up ignoring the ones they love - their children. Once left on their own devices, the young become vulnerable to all sorts of external dangers, the most prominent of them being mental, physical and drug abuse.

Two years after its “Passion for Peace” tour stop here rocked Miller Auditorium, Pakistani-American rock group Junoon is back in town with the same goal in mind: To use its music to unite people across ideological and religious divides.

The trio, consisting of founding members Ali Azmat on vocals, guitarist Salman Ahmad and bassist Brian O’Connel, plays the State Theater on Monday as part of its current U.S. tour.

Azmat and Ahmad are Pakistani Muslims, while O’Connel is an American Catholic. They formed Junoon, which means “passion” in Urdu, in 1990, but there were challenges from the beginning.

Yes, it’s now official. The pioneers of rock music in Pakistan, Junoon, have ‘fired’ their leading bass guitar player Brian O’Connell, setting the entire future of the band into uncertainly. Although the rumors of the split had been around for quite some time, the situation became obvious when during a press conference in the mid of last July, Salman and Ali both vehemently avoided any questions regarding the status of their former band mate. In fact, Ali got so infuriated by a fellow journalist’s persistent questions regarding Brian’s health that he almost yelled ‘ Aap uss say khud phone kerkay kion nahin pooch laytay?[Why don’t you call him up and ask for yourself?]. The final nail in the coffin appeared when a cheery Salman Ahmed announced the inclusion of Mekaal Hasan as a ‘special guest on bass’ in all their upcoming gigs.