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Saba Hameed has range as an actor. She’s one of the most recognisable faces on Pakistani television, partly because of just how many projects she’s a part of.

Take, for example, the ARY Digital show Bas Tera Saath Ho. The show’s been running for 28 episodes so far and Hameed is playing the wife of the male lead’s uncle (Faran Tahir). A more recent project she’s doing is ARY’s Dar-e-Nijaat where she plays the mother of the female lead’s dad (also Tahir). Wait…what?

Yeah, we’re not kidding and we’re definitely not alone in thinking it’s a quite weird. In a reel posted on Monday, content creator K Khan asked the team behind Dar-e-Nijaat which angle they looked at Hameed from to think she was even remotely fit to play Tahir’s mum, especially when she’s playing his spouse in a show that airs on the same channel.

In the comment section, actor Zhalay Sarhadi said only women seem to age in Pakistani society, as men never really stop being boys.

“Hence our industry keeps on submitting to this cultural and generational brainwashing. All over the world, it’s changing, just not in this part of the planet.”

She said female actors in Pakistan needed to get “more appropriate roles written for us with better, more realistic casting”.

Sarhadi also joked that if this keeps up, she’ll be playing Humayun Saeed’s mother in a drama soon enough.

Actor Atiqa Odho also thought the whole situation was ridiculous. In a clip from her drama review show Kya Drama Hai, posted on YouTube on Tuesday, she said, “The cast is fantastic, except I don’t understand how Saba Hameed can play Faran Tahir’s mother.”

Odho said Hameed’s look in the show seemed forced because she does not look like a grandmother.

Not everyone thought it was strange though. TV host Juggun Kazim felt the two roles were “a testament to Saba Hameed’s extraordinary talent”.

“She has the rare ability to make you forget the actor and believe the character every single time. We are so lucky to have artists like her,” Kazim said.

Ageism is a contentious subject in Pakistan’s entertainment industry, with some several actors — including Odho — suggesting the rules of age apply very differently to male and female actors.

While male actors in their 40s continue to be cast in lead roles as young men — like Fahad Mustafa playing a 20-something-year-old in Kabhi Main Kabhi Tum — their on screen partners are often much younger girls. Women in their 40s and over, however, frequently get typecast as mothers or much older women.