IN almost every drama serial, I see a ‘baychari’ (deprived) woman who is often beaten up by her husband or one of her friends is having an affair with her husband/fiancée or her mother-in-law would be planning to bring a second wife for her husband -- for sometimes the most inexplicable reason.

What kind of content is on air these days? Do the dressing, language, attitude, lifestyle, etc, really depict our Pakistani culture?

I was born and brought up in the nineties and our drama industry was supposedly one of the best in the world at that time. Even in India the popularity of our thirteen-episode drama serials was unparalleled. I remember the whole family used to watch drama serials at eight every night on PTV. Alpha Bravo Charlie, Dhuan, Hawaein, Aanch, etc., were some examples of our classic drama serials with no glamour, bitching, battered women and had done extremely well commercially also.

We used to export our dramas and earn revenue for our country but today we are doing exactly the opposite by importing foreign content from Turkey and India which don’t even reflect our cultural norms.

Hasina Moin, Anwer Maqsood and Ashfaq Ahmed were some of the writers who used to write quality scripts. Our script writers today are out of ideas; they lack imagination.

Every channel is running after ratings and TRP’s but no one is actually looking after the content which matters and can also raise ratings.

I would like to request production and media houses that our drama serials are like the heritage of our country; if you cannot raise the standard bar, at least don’t pull it down with inappropriate content and despicable subjects.

Sharjeel Mustufa
Karachi