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TV show host Nida Yasir has apologised for her “choice of words” after drawing sharp criticism for her remarks about Foodpanda riders — she accused them of “lying” to pocket extra cash and proudly admitted to deliberately delaying their next deliveries to “teach them a lesson”.

In a new episode of Good Morning Pakistan, Yasir opened the show with a clarification. “A few days ago, during my programme, I shared my personal experience with you, an experience that was not pleasant. But my mistake was my choice of words, the way I chose to retell that experience,” she said. She added that because her show is live, “we often aren’t careful about how we’re coming off”.

She then argued that she should have said “some people” instead of speaking broadly, as she insisted she never meant to target all riders. “There are so many riders; in fact, the majority of the riders are working very hard to make ends meet. I am not sitting here to hurt anybody,” she said. “I carry my heart on my sleeve, but I am human, not an angel… and sometimes what is in our hearts may not always come out right.”

Addressing the riders directly, she concluded: “However many rider friends of mine were hurt, I want to apologise to them. I salute the hardworking riders. I didn’t mean to make light of their struggles.”

While Yasir’s heart may be in the right place, the backlash wasn’t sparked simply by her phrasing. The issue was the behaviour she described — and defended — on live television.

Yasir had originally said she believes riders “make a habit” of pretending they have no change, so customers are forced to pay extra. And when she suspects this is happening, she said she tells her driver to fetch change and makes the rider wait intentionally, knowing it will delay their next delivery. All this, she said, was to ensure they “learn a lesson”.

This wasn’t a slip of the tongue; it was a deliberate anecdote about punishing underpaid gig workers who are already navigating broken roads, unpredictable weather, traffic, and real safety risks.

What made her comments even more jarring is that Foodpanda’s system is built to avoid this situation altogether. The app explicitly notifies customers to keep change ready when the rider is near — a clear indication that arranging change is the customer’s responsibility.

As we mentioned in an earlier article, riders cannot be expected to carry large sums of cash while travelling long distances on unsafe roads. They also make multiple deliveries per hour. Every minute a customer delays them affects their next order, their rating, and their earnings. And for customers who don’t want the hassle of handling change, the app offers online payment options.

Given this context, the question was never about whether Yasir meant “some riders” or “all riders”. It was about a mindset that uses the vulnerability of gig workers as an opportunity to “teach lessons”.