Pakistan gets its first-ever Miss Universe contestant, earns the ire of Anwaar-Ul-Haq Kakar govt

livemint.com:

Pakistan's interim Prime Minister Anwaar-Ul-Haq Kakar, Pakistan's foreign ministry and their intelligence bureau has been wracking their heads into understanding how such a ‘disaster’ unfolded. The ‘disaster’ being- Pakistan for the first time on Thursday got their Miss Universe contestant.

In a pageant event held in Maldives, a twenty four year old Erica Robin won the title of Miss Universe Pakistan and is set to represent her nation for the Miss Universe competition in El Salvador scheduled to be held later this year. According a report on Dawn, the first-ever Miss Universe Pakistan event featured five contestants from Pakistan and was organised by Dubai-based company Yugen Group, which announced in March that it had acquired the rights to the competition.

Now, PM Anwaar-Ul-Haq Kakar has Pakistan's foreign ministry trying to understand how the event, which many have called “shameful act" and an “insult and exploitation of women of Pakistan", was being held in the name of Pakistan. According to the Dawn report, religious scholar Taqi Usmani was among the first to take offence, insisting that the government take notice and proceed against those responsible for the pageant.

He also demanded that the impression that these women were “representing Pakistan" should be dispelled. The report further said, journalist Ansar Abbasi also raised a similar gripe, asking which government functionary had approved sending Pakistani women to participate in the beauty pageant.

Responding to his criticism, Information Minister Murtaza Solangi tweeted that the government had not officially nominated anyone for such activities. The issue was also raised by religious scholar Mufti Taqi Usmani on X, who demanded the government to “take