A video of veteran actor Resham throwing meat, bread and plastic waste into a river on her way to Charsadda has drawn massive backlash online, with people calling out the actor’s actions.
On Sunday, the actor uploaded a video of herself throwing meat and bread into a river on Facebook. She also threw the plastic packaging the food came in into the water.
People were very angry at her thoughtless actions. Singer Meesha Shafi tweeted, “Distributing aid on camera to victims of horrific floods caused by giant climate change calamity right after throwing groceries and plastic shoppers/trays into a river (also on camera).”
Activist Shaniera Akram also shared the clip on her Instagram stories and asked who throws meat and plastic containers into a flood affected river, that too “on camera”.
One Twitter user said she is feeding the river creatures and arranging to “kill them” as well.
People had jokes about her nonchalant dumping of plastic waste.
Someone shared an Urdu idiom about keeping quiet about your good deeds.
People had jokes.
“Feed a fish and kill it too,” wrote another user.
People were disappointed with the actor.
One person shared a picture of Turkish actor Celal Al’s visit to Pakistan to help flood victims as a comparison.
In response to the criticism, Resham defended her actions and told The Friday Times on Tuesday that there are way more pressing issues out there. “Women are gang raped here everyday. Violence against women is commonplace. I was merely offering sadaqah [charity],” she said. She also gave an “unconditional apology,” admitting that she made a mistake by throwing plastic into the water body.
But she also justified her actions, saying she had contracted Covid-19 twice and was “absentminded” because of it. She also said she lost her only brother some time ago as well. She added that she had been struggling with her mental health but also questioned “why the brouhaha” when untreated waste is dumped into the water on a daily basis and industrialists are not held accountable. Resham also questioned why “special treatment” was being given to her for something she did out of “absent-mindedness”.
“I am in Charsadda as we speak. I have been been quietly helping thousands affected in the calamity-hit district. But, of course, people are only interested in trolling me. I do a lot of good too,” she reasoned.
“I have an enviable social media following. Over 600,000 people follow me just on Facebook. That’s more than enough publicity for me. I feed hundreds. A great deal of what I make is spent on this but people will only comment on that video,” the Naagin actor said.