A Pakistani TikToker with millions of followers, Humaira Asghar, has drawn flak on social media after posting a video in a silver ball gown glamourizing the raging wild forest fire behind her.
This comes at a time when Islamabad is reeling from the effects of climate change — the capital city alone has witnessed many cases of wildfires as the heatwave sweeps through the Islamic state.
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The wildfires have become rampant around the country, and the visuals of fire engulfing people's homes and killing animals have left netizens heartbroken.
The temperature in parts of Pakistan has peaked as high as 123.8 Fahrenheit recently, leaving the lower strata of the impoverished country vulnerable and struggling to beat the heat.
Asghar, with over 11 million followers, captioned the video as "Fire erupts wherever I am."
Reacting to the trending video Rina Saeed Khan Satti, an environmental activist and chairperson of the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board in a tweet said, "This is a disturbing & disastrous trend on Tik Tok! Young people desperate [for] followers are setting fire to our forests during this hot & dry season! In Australia, it is life imprisonment for those who start wildfires. We need to introduce similar legislation @WildlifeBoard."
In another tweet reacting to a similar video, Satti wrote, "these psychotic young people have to be caught and put behind bars immediately! If you have any information, plz contact @WildlifeBoard."
Meanwhile, in a statement released by an assistant, Asghar said that she did not start the fire and there was "no harm in making videos."
Amid the raging internet backlash, the video was taken down by Asghar.
Pakistan had 40.8 million social media users in Pakistan as of 2021-end and the number is expected to balloon to 48.8 million by 2025, according to data from Statista. ByteDance-owned TikTok has gained massive popularity in the South Asian country alongside Meta Platforms Inc's (NASDAQ:FB) Facebook and Instagram, and Snap Inc's (NYSE:SNAP) Snapchat.
About 24 million Pakistanis are using TikTok while Facebook has an audience of 43.5 million. Snapchat has 18.8 million users in the country, as of April.
