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Actor Resham drew public ire for throwing plastic waste into a river while heading to Charsadda to help flood affectees on Sunday. After her video went viral, many people, including celebrities, criticised her for adding to Pakistan’s pollution problem. After initially calling people out for “trolling her”, the actor has now publicly apologised.

On Wednesday, she took to Instagram and shared a video of herself apologising to her followers and the entire nation. “First of all, please accept my apology because what happened shouldn’t have had happened. It happened out of carelessness and was not done intentionally and for that I apologise to the entire nation. I personally am against littering and to keep our country clean is our duty. I’m also a human and every human makes mistakes, so did I,” she said

She called it the “biggest mistake” of her career and said that she’ll try to make sure it never happens again. She ended her video with an apology from the “bottom of her heart”.

The viral video clip showed the actor stepping out of the car on a highway to distribute bread and meat she was carrying. What irked people was that as Resham stood by the edge of the flyover and recorded herself throwing the food into the river, she also threw the plastic containers and bags the food came in.

Criticism came from netizens as well as celebrities such as Meesha Shafi and Shaneira Akram. After the criticism, the actor gave an interview to The Friday Times where she said there are more pressing issues to worry about. “Women are gang raped here everyday. Violence against women is commonplace. I was merely offering sadaqah [charity],” she said.

“I am in Charsadda as we speak. I have been been quietly helping thousands affected in the calamity-hit district. But, of course, people are only interested in trolling me. I do a lot of good too,” she had reasoned.