KARACHI: Uks Research Centre, on Tuesday, organised a webinar on the topic of “Why women don’t see themselves in Pakistani dramas”.

The organisation, which monitors gender representation in the media, earlier, also took a poll on whether women relate to female characters in Pakistani drama serials. Reading out the results of the poll, Sheherzad Samiuddin, a senior communications expert at Uks, said that out of some 78 respondents, 14 per cent said they very often relate, while over half said they rarely or not at all relate to what they see on screen. “These findings point to a growing gap between women’s lived realities and how they are portrayed in entertainment media,” she said.

A discussion went on among the participants about the disconnect and what the dramas were reflecting on or influencing.

The founding director of Uks said that there were obviously a lot of dramas being made these days but the majority of them were unrealistic.

There is too much glamour in our plays, Uks webinar told

“Earlier, our plays related to women, they spoke of women’s empowerment, too,” she said. “But these days there is too much glamour in our plays. Women are shown working in the kitchen wearing makeup with blow dried hair. It gives the wrong message that women should be made up at all times,” she added.

Sharing her own observation to that, Fareha Jamal, a participant, said that she had also seen funeral scenes where the women were shown with perfectly manicured nails.

Syed Imran Ali Shah, another drama enthusiast participating in the discussion, was of the view that the content is still good in the perspective of entertainment though he also agreed to the fact that there is a disconnection between reel life and real life. “They represent a particular class which has nothing to do with our class,” he said.

The Uks director said that despite the disconnect, the production quality of Pakistani dramas was good. “But technology aside, the human content in our plays is not good,” she said.

She said that there were some good and powerful plays as well but they had their faults also. Taking the example of Case No 9, she said that it had its shortcomings too, such as not carrying a trigger warning where needed. “Then a real talk show was brought into the drama, making the play unrealistic. It’s just how so many good plays lose their quality,” she said.

Mr Shah pointed to another problem such as the institution of marriage being targeted in Pakistani plays. “Somewhere they show the woman not to be interested in continuing her marriage, somewhere they show a man not accepting his marriage,” he said.

Rafia Arshad, another participant, said that our plays had a subtle way of normalising fashion, glamour and negative characters. “What are such dramas out to prove? And what are they promoting? What message are they giving?” She asked.

The Uks director also said that it was definitely a problem. “If things are not working out in a marriage, it is always better to leave. The old expectation of staying in a bad marriage should change now. If a girl is educated and self-reliant, she can leave. But here there is a stigma attached to divorce,” she said.

She also said that regressive thinkers don’t want to see progressive reality. “If drinking is shown in a play, people complain but they should understand that it is reality. Incest is a sad reality of our society but if shown on TV, the viewers complain. Meanwhile, violence such as slapping or being pulled or dragged along are things that are not stopped or banned,” she regretted.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2026