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After a lot of noise surrounding their nomination list, the Lux Style Awards (LSAs) has issued a statement regarding the exclusion of female artists from the music category nominations. They reasoned on social media that the exclusion was a result of zero entries from female musicians within the submission deadline. They have now extended the the portfolio submission, describing themselves as a brand committed to “empowering female artists across genres”.

On Sunday, the LSAs shared a statement via Instagram which read, “The Lux Style Awards have a rich legacy as Pakistan’s premier and inclusive award show. Since its inception, LSA has honoured the diverse talent across entertainment industries, striving for continued excellence in the quality of the platform and the experience of our fans.”

The statement added that as time passes, the LSAs are also evolving their processes and this year, in the spirit of strengthening their transparency, they made the decision to announce all submissions as received on their website for consumers to vote. The submissions were aimed at artists to submit their best work but, the statement claimed, female artists did not submit their work in the given time frame, which is why they were not nominated.

“As an inclusive platform, we realise this gap and regret that the music categories did not reflect the remarkable efforts of our female artists. We have witnessed the undeniable contribution of our female artists to the music industry in the past year and feel that without their inclusion, the music categories cannot truly encompass Pakistan’s best world in the field,” read the statement.

They also expressed gratitude for the female artists of the industry that highlighted the gap and to address it, said the LSA has chosen to make an “exception” to extend the deadline for “submissions for female, male or transgender artists across categories.”

“As a brand committed to empowering female artists across genres, we encourage our brilliant female musicians who have entertained us through the year to submit their entries for consideration,” they wrote.

The statement comes nearly a week after artists Meesha Shafi, Momina Mustehsan, Zeb Bangash, Maria Unera, Rachel Viccaji, Risham Faiz Bhutta, Sania from Justin Bibis, Eva B, Rutaba Yaqub, Natasha Baig and Nimra Rafiq took to Instagram to call out the awards for excluding female musicians.

The music nominations at the Lux Style Awards have four categories — song of the year, singer of the year, most streamed and best live performance — and only male artists were on this year’s list. The voting site went under maintenance shortly after the criticism and voting has come to a halt.