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Nadia Afgan has responded to criticism of characters in her show Dar-e-Nijaat by saying there are some unrealistically good people in the world and she knew because her in-laws were that good.

In a story posted to her Instagram account, Afgan said, “People like Abu Bakar and his mother do exist. When Jodi and I got married, I was as shocked as Zaryab.”

The actor said her husband and his family were still “the loveliest, most decent and kindest people in the world” and that she loves her mother-in-law “like my own mother”.

Abu Bakar (Sheheryar Munawar) and his mother Khushbakht (Sania Saeed) are shown in Dar-e-Nijaat to be incredibly nice and patient — some have said too much so — with Zaryab (Durefishan Saleem), whose past continues to haunt her after even her marriage to Abu Bakar.

Afgan said early in her marriage, she had asked her husband, “Are you guys really this good? And why do you never fight amongst yourselves, are you aliens?” She said she could relate to Zaryab and that “good humans do exist”.

Earlier, the show’s writer, Umera Ahmed, had also asked why people in the audience had such a hard time believing people could be good to one another.

The writer said people had said her characters seemed “out of [this] world” and “AI-created”, implying that people like this don’t exist in the real world.

In her post, Ahmed asked why her followers felt “basic human traits like kindness, empathy, forgiveness [and] overlooking others’ flaws are [going] extinct from our society” and why, when they are portrayed in the media, people find them unreal.

Ahmed ended the post questioning if we were “deteriorating as a society on basic human morality and goodness”.