Good on Nabeel sab for apologising.

The Sher Khan character is basically an extension of the same Kiplingesque colonial noble- savage construct of the wild frontier which in the post partition urban metropolitans of new Pakistan assumed the shape of the saada-loh, endearingly https://twitter.com/nabeelzafar2008/status/1286349468401651714

...silly but prone-to-violence-to-defend-his-honour chowkidar-driver type character that you have found, over the decades in, ptv drama serials, stage dramas of Karachi (Umer Sharif's dumb Pashtun characters spring to minds) and Punjab and popular lateefay in akhbar and digests.

What is noticeable is that even well-meaning and educated ppl like Nabeel who as artists/ creators should know that humans are complex creatures (not uni-dimensional caricatures) find nothing wrong with such portrayal. You can see that he is genuinely taken aback by the backlash.

To be fair to Nabeel, some Pashtuns have also internalised this noble savage tapak-zama-qanoon narrative because of its martial race machismo - mistakenly assuming that it makes us better than the lesser non martial daal-khor races.

Sit your ass down, son. It only makes you..

...look stupid and riles you up for Jihads in the region. You are not hoisting that flag in Lal Qila, asshole.

The Modern Pashtun Man does not buy into this narrative of noble savage and of ghayoor naddar qabail who always shoots from the hip for his religion and honour.

The MPM,by virtue of the geo-strategic curse of strategic depth imposed upon him(& partly self-imposed) shd be a non-violent 'beghairat' pragmatist buzdil who should put his survival and interest before any silly ideas of honour.

Lay saans bhi aahista.
K naazuk hai bohat kaam

In the end, it is a good thing that the Modern Pashtun Man (and woman) is turning on the heat and lashing back at racial stereotypes which are rooted in history, neo-colonism, geo-politics and just plain good old racism.

How many times have we, in campuses, offices and workplaces come across this genuinely surprised response from ppl:

'Aray khan saab.. aap tou ghussa ho gaye'

Which implies

A) itni sensitivity khan? Pathan itnay sensitive kab se ho gaye?
B) khan,itnay brain cell kahan se agaye?

This, after they have said something in jest as a racial charged joke (say naswar, laundaybaazi) and they expect you to be cool about it because they earnestly think they are being funny and its all cool.

Ab aesa nahi ho ga bhai. Ab Pathan parh likh gaya hai.