Pakistan actor facing backlash for polluting river ‘blames it on having Covid’

An actor from Pakistan received severe backlash after being filmed polluting a river by throwing meat, bread and plastic waste into it.

The actor, known only as Resham, was forced to apologise after a video of the act, which was uploaded on one of her social media fan pages on Sunday, showed her walking out of her car on a bridge and throwing two loaves of bread, meat and the plastic packaging they were wrapped in.

The bizarre justification given by the actor to local media was that she wanted to feed the river’s living beings.

She was slammed for the ignorant act by social media users across Pakistan and forced to later issue an apology. Ms Reshma, in another bizarre statement, claimed long Covid as the reason behind her act.

Famous Pakistani artist and singer Meesha Shafi expressed her surprise on Twitter.

“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),” she said and added crying and thinking emojis.

Asma Azam, a Pakistani blogger and activist, shared the video and tweeted in Urdu, saying people had “no idea about environmental pollution”.

Ms Resham has in the past been seen distributing relief to victims of the devastating floods in the country.

Backlash forced the actor to post an apology video on Instagram and Facebook. She said in a video that this was “one of the biggest mistakes of my career” and said she took full responsibility for the incident and would never repeat such a “mistake”.

After the outcry, Ms Resham pivoted her apology and tried to imply that she was “unintentionally” being forgetful of things as she possibly had long-Covid and that she didn’t want to cause harm intentionally.

Geo TV quoted her as saying: “I have had Covid twice and its effects are still there. I forget things and don’t remember what I did four hours ago. This is why I did not realise what I was going to do and threw the bags in recklessness.”

She didn’t appreciate the backlash that came her way.

“It seemed like I did not throw just two bags in the water but was responsible for the entire world’s pollution. People are targeting me as if I have committed a sin and all the floods and catastrophe has happened because of me,” she said.

She admitted to have made a mistake, but bizarrely pivoted again by saying there were larger issues like sexual assault.

“I admit that I made a mistake when I threw plastic into the flood water, but women are gang raped every day. There is a lot of violence against women, but everyone is blinded by a piece of plastic. They live in a place where only fools can be happy. I was just giving charity,” she further told the channel.