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Saba Qamar ignited a social media firestorm last week by expressing her perhaps too honest opinion about living and working in Karachi. When asked whether she would consider moving to the city, she shot back with an “Astaghfirullah, never!” That led to everyone from celebrities to the general public drawing lines in the sand, with Karachiites making fun of Lahore and Islamabad — which Qamar said she prefers — and people from the other cities responding in kind.

After everyone got their 15 minutes of emotionally-fuelled fame over the issue, actor Hina Khwaja Bayat — a native of Karachi — has come out to ask why people found it necessary to differentiate between themselves based on what city they live in. In a reel posted to her Instagram, she reminded viewers of the age-old proverb, “Think before you speak,” saying our words have the ability to hurt people.

Bayat said she had lived in Karachi all her life and called the city “her home,” adding she had seen the city’s ruining firsthand and continues to do so. While that pains her, she said it doesn’t deter her from celebrating Lahore for its “gardens and beautiful roads”. In the same vein, she says she wouldn’t mock Lahore over the city’s problems with air pollution, because that won’t solve anything.

Recounting Karachi’s metropolitan nature, she said it was a city where people from all parts of the country and all walks of life lived together, a melting pot of cultures which “represents all of Pakistan”. She said people who come to work in the city have the right to criticise it, but in a constructive way.

In the end, Bayat said, “Pakistan is our house, and all these cities…are like different rooms in that house. I may live in one room [and you may live in another], but we must own our whole country, not just our cities.” She said Karachiites had a tradition of raising their voices for people from all parts of Pakistan and asked people of other cities to lend their voices to her hometown.

We don’t think Qamar’s comments are reason enough for people to get so charged up, because every city has its problems. We do see the Bayat’s point though — the only way we can improve our cities and even our country as a whole is by working together.

Cover photo via Hina Bayat/Instagram