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As the country mourns the deaths of 14 babies who burned to death in a fire in the NICU at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) in Islamabad on Wednesday, stars continued to express their grief and anger over the tragedy.

On Friday, Mahira Khan posted a message on her Instagram page saying people were murdered every day in Pakistan, “by negligence”, “by power”, “by misogyny” and “by silence”.

Khan asked how many more deaths the country would have to face and “when did it get so bad?” She said she felt sick to her stomach and hopeless to the core in light of recent events and that she “can’t stop crying looking at the news every day”.

The actor said she “can’t even begin to imagine the pain of those who have been directly affected” by a slew of tragedies, but soon all the innocent victims will become “just another hashtag” and “we will all move on”.

This wasn’t just about the fire at Pims and its 14 tiny victims, Khan remembered the mother of the 18-month-old girl in Karachi who was raped and murdered on August 4 and the family of Mir Raza Ali, the 25-year-old Karachi businessman who was found murdered in July.

She also mentioned the parents of Hina Javed, who was found murdered in her Rawalpindi apartment on Aug 20 with signs of torture on her body and the father of a five-year-old girl, whose body was found dumped in a well on Monday after she was raped.

“Who cares who is responsible? How does it even matter, when nobody has ever been held responsible?”

She prayed for a day her children can see a better Pakistan, quoting a line from Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s Hum Dekehenge: “Jab zulm-o-sitam ke koh-e-giraan/Ruii ki tarah urrh jaein gey (When the mountains of tyranny and oppression will blow away like cotton fluff).”

Actor Bushra Ansari also posted a reel on Instagram saying Pakistanis were seeing many tragedies nowadays, including the death of babies at Pims due to “negligence”.

“That happened and the ones going through that grief, who knows what they’re thinking. Someone [lost] a child they had after trying for years, somebody lost twins… it’s a great, unimaginable loss.”

Ansari said she wasn’t here to talk about that, but rather the conduct of Federal Health Minister Mustafa Kamal, who was “shaking them off”.

“This is not the way to talk to these people,” the actor said.

“For God’s sake, think of how you’re behaving. Nobody’s saying you started the fire. It’s just that there’s an institution under [your ministry]. People will complain about it [to you] and they’re distressed… and you’re scolding them?”

She urged the minister to do the job he gets paid for or “keep your head down and listen to people’s complaints”.

Khaled Anam, another industry veteran, similarly admonished authorities. He said pleading the authorities to take action or fix anything was “akin to playing the flute for a buffalo”.

Anam quoted the late columnist Ardeshir Cowasjee, saying “You cannot shame the shameless” and said it was futile to expect those responsible to accept blame and leave their posts.

“Please don’t expect anything to happen. Committees will be formed, findings published, notices taken and announcements made that ‘Oh, we gave a budget of so many crores.’”

Anam said all his expectations — and those of society — were from God now. He prayed for everyone responsible for the Pims tragedy to be held accountable.

Naimal Khawar said she “angry, furious, scared and heartbroken” after seeing yet another story that “makes me wonder whether our children and women are safe anywhere anymore”.

“How many more mothers have to lose their children? How many more girls have to suffer before enough is enough?” the actor asked in an Instagram story.

Khawar said her heart was “with the families who lost their newborns at Pims, with Hina Javed and with every woman and girl who has faced unimaginable violence”.

Like Anam, she also prayed for God to deliver justice to those who had been wronged.