Celebrities have a huge impact on people. They are role models and people literally imitate the way they live. Not just their on-screen characters, but people are very curious about their off-screen lives as well. Celebrities are very vocal about the COVID-19 outbreak and they have been really active on social media about educating people to wear masks and stay at home, asking the government to Implement more strategies so that people follow SOPs but unfortunately their practical life seems way different than what they portray on social media.

Dr Fahad Mirza, who is the husband of eminent actress Sarwat Gillani hosted his 40^th birthday amidst COVID and a lot of celebrities attended it. He himself is a doctor so it was unexpected for him to do this.

Not just a plain birthday party, but there was a Qawalli night too. The guests seemed to enjoy the birthday party like nothing is going on despite of the dreadful fact that Pakistan’s neighbour India is in a devastating situation due to COVID and all the educational institutes, offices are closed till the next announcement in Pakistan as well. No outdoor weddings, gatherings or dinners are allowed and people are asked to stay at their home as it is a critical time.

People got really furious after looking at the pictures and videos of Fahad Mirza’s birthday bash and wondered what message these celebrities are trying to give?

Farieha Altaf. She is a famous producer, director and socialite is quite active on her social media and tells people to stay careful and she herself attended the birthday bash. She obviously got bashed for attending a huge social gathering during these times but recently she gave a statement that it was not what it seemed and proper SOPs were followed. She also said trolls need to think before calling celebs out.

She was asked this step and talking about sending out a wrong message of encouraging public gatherings, she shared, “I think, be it public figures, celebrities, politicians, the general public – it’s everyone’s responsibility to be responsible about the pandemic and if you see my posts on Twitter, you will constantly see me talking about asking people to get vaccinated to stay safe because we all realize that we have to follow these measures to keep our country safe and to keep working and provide for our families and get rid of the pandemic.” She further added, “It’s been very stressful and very hard on everyone and we know what’s happening in India and so we need to be extra careful.”

She felt people on social media call out others without doing the necessary fact-checking. “I feel that people on social media just pick up on things they don’t check on things they don’t know the whole story and they assume and make assumptions and start trolling and throwing hate around on celebrities,” she said, adding, “It’s always the case because the tweet or story is so short, so how are you going to know the whole story I urge everyone to please look at things carefully before passing judgment, stay safe, and follow the SOP

Well, it’s not the first time celebrities hosted birthday parties amidst COVID. Influential celebrities like Kinza Hashmi and Saboor Aly also hosted a grand birthday party in March.

Well, we understand that “going out” is part of their job but these parties definitely have an impact on people. Because these celebrities themselves are very vocal about COVID and SOPs and why one should stay home. They are public figures for a reason! We admire them but they should know they have a huge impression on people and people follow what they do. They should use this power sensibly and avoid doing certain things which do not match their words.