KARACHI: For a fortnight, the Pakistani internet’s favourite target has been Durefishan Saleem and the accent she uses in her new drama *Dar-e-Nijaat*. Now Sanam Saeed has stepped in to defend her colleague.

In an Instagram story posted on Monday, Saeed described the pile-on as unsettling. She said it was very lame to watch everyone become so fixated on an actor’s accent, and called the wave of criticism downright mean and inconsiderate of another person’s feelings.

Saleem plays Zaryab in *Dar-e-Nijaat*, the carefree younger daughter of a well-off family — a character educated in elite schools and weighing a move to the United States, who is shown speaking mostly in English with her sister, her friends and her boyfriend Zamil, played by Nameer Khan.

What viewers took issue with was the accent itself, which many argued did not sit naturally with the character as written. Criticism of craft is fair game in any art form; Saeed’s point is that there is a line between critique and cruelty, and that social media crossed it.