New Delhi: A Pakistani celebrity’s heartfelt efforts to “normalise public transport for all” in times of economic crisis backfired after she was called out by social media users for indulging in the “fetishisation of middle-class culture”.
Karachi-based TV/radio presenter Anoushey Ashraf took to Twitter this week to post a video of her embarking on an auto-rickshaw “adventure”.
The video, showing the 37-year-old partaking in the plebeian mode of commute, was captioned, “Got offered a sympathy ride when someone saw me getting into a rickshaw 2day. I thought it’d be an adventure, was close to home, relatively safe (you can jump out) and cheap.”
“But seeing a “well off” person in a rick can really worry ppl here! Normalise public transport for all,” her tone-deaf tweet added.
Her comments elicited a swift and strong response on social media.
“If travelling on a rickshaw is an adventure then my life is full of adventures,” wrote a Twitter user.
Even Omar R. Quraishi, former media advisor to PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, weighed in on Ashraf’s tweet.
“It’s not an adventure for most people – it’s actually quite expensive now – for many it’s a compulsion since many people don’t own cars/bikes – don’t really think seeing a “well off” person will worry anyone – would people not worry if the person wasn’t “well off”,” he wrote.
Similar reactions to Ashraf’s ‘adventurous joyride’ highlighted the burgeoning class divide in Pakistan where a majority of the population is reeling under the weight of rising fuel and energy prices.
This divide between the average Pakistani and the elite upper class was the subject of discussion in 2021 when two owners of a high-end cafe in Islamabad were called out for ridiculing the manager for not being able to converse in fluent English.
A video clip showed the two women asking the manager how many classes had he taken to learn English. They then asked him to introduce himself in English and reacted by cackling away as he responded, “My name is Awais Aftab and I job here manager, and that’s it.”
Pakistani public commentators, economists, analysts and journalists have often commented on the country becoming an ‘elitist state‘ where both the public and private sector are under the grip of an “elite capture”.
Just this week, in a blog for ARY News titled ‘Pakistan and elitism’, journalist Hoor Asrar Raouf wrote, “It is widely known that Pakistani polity is under the strong grip of elites that think only about themselves and pay no attention to the welfare of millions of their compatriots.”
The current economic crisis has made the divide starker, and Ashraf’s comments have provided fresh fodder for the debate.
Ashraf, who is also an ambassador for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), started her career with MTV Pakistan and has appeared in advertisements for leading brands including Ponds and L’Oreal, among others. Ashraf has also dabbled in modelling, doodling and acting, and even runs a clothing label named ‘Block Seven’, which she started with her sisters in 2010.
One Twitter user reacted to her tweet by saying, “Mode of transport used by people everyday is an “adventure” for our elites. Can we please stop this fetishization of “middle-class” culture?”