From grieving newborns to violence against women, stars have taken to social media to demand action and justice
A wave of grief, anger and frustration has swept across Pakistani celebrities’ social media this week as stars reacted to the deaths of 14 newborns in the PIMS fire and a string of other tragedies, questioning how many more lives must be lost before those responsible are held accountable.
Actor Sonya Hussyn shared a news report on Instagram about a distressed family protesting outside a private hospital in Karachi’s Nazimabad area.
Calling the situation a sign of how far things had deteriorated, she wrote that the incident “could be a potential case of human trafficking”. “Things have reached a terrifying point in Pakistan,” she wrote, describing the incident as a “horrifying reality that demands immediate action” and urging authorities to wake up.
Screengrab: SonyaHussyn/Instagram
Actor Naimal Khawar also took to Instagram Stories to express her despair over recent events. “Angry, furious, scared and heartbroken, every day there is another story,” she wrote, questioning whether children and women were safe anywhere anymore.
“How many more mothers have to lose their children? How many more girls have to suffer before enough is enough?” she asked.
She said her heart was with “the families who lost their newborns at PIMS, with Hina Javaid, and with every woman and girl who had faced unimaginable violence”, praying that they be granted sabr and justice.
She added that no tear or injustice goes unseen and that everyone would one day be held accountable before God. “May Allah protect our children and women. Ameen,” she wrote.
Screengrab: NaimalKhawar/Instagram
Veteran actor Bushra Ansari shared a video message addressing the deaths of the 14 newborns at PIMS, focusing on what she described as negligence and the treatment of the grieving families.
“A lot of incidents are happening before us. These 14 kids passed away before even opening their eyes; there is a lot of negligence,” she said, adding that she could not begin to describe what the bereaved parents were going through.
Ansari said she had recorded the video to question Health Minister Mustafa Kamal over his treatment of the victims’ families. “This is not the way to treat or speak to people. For God’s sake, think of how you’re behaving,” she said.
Questioning the minister’s conduct, she added: “You can’t scold them at the moment when they’re going through such grief. People will complain about it [to you], and they’re distressed, and you’re scolding them?”
Ansari urged the minister to either do the job he was paid for or “keep your head down and listen to people’s complaints”.
Durefishan Saleem took a different approach, using her Instagram Stories to focus on accountability and the role of parents in raising boys.
Urging parents to “raise better men”, she addressed men who had already reached adulthood, writing: “Take accountability for the men you have chosen to become.”
She urged women to “know the men around you” and warned against confusing “a good reputation with good character”. She also called on people to protect children and women rather than look away.
Screengrab: Durefishan Saleem/Instagram
Mahira Khan also weighed in, describing the deaths and other tragedies as the result of what she characterised as negligence, abuse of power, misogyny and silence.
“How many more? When did it get this bad?” she wrote, saying she felt “sick to my stomach” and “hopeless to the core” while watching the news and could not imagine the pain of those directly affected.
Khan named the “grieving mother of Aizel, family of Mir Raza, the parents of Hina Javaid, the father of Ayat Noor, and the 14 parents of the newborns lost at PIMS”, adding that the list “goes on and on”. “Who cares who is responsible? How does it even matter, when nobody has ever been held responsible?” she wrote.
Khan ended her post with a prayer that her children would one day see a better Pakistan. She also referenced a line from Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s revolutionary poem Hum Dekhenge, invoking its imagery of oppression and injustice eventually giving way.
Several other celebrities have also spoken out over the PIMS fire and other incidents. Their posts have echoed calls for accountability and raised concerns about what they see as wider failures in systems meant to protect vulnerable people.
The outpouring has also brought renewed attention to safety standards at hospitals and other institutions responsible for public welfare. While celebrities have expressed their grief and frustration online, the families affected by the PIMS fire and the cases involving Hina Javaid, Aizel, Mir Raza and Ayat Noor continue to seek transparent investigations and accountability.
For them, the demand remains the same: that justice should not disappear once public attention moves on.
