 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.