Miss Universe Pakistan Controversy: FO directed to inquire the pageant held in UAE without govt’s approval
Five women are reported to have competed in the controversial 'Miss Universe Pakistan' Pageant".
FO has been directed to inquire the pageant that was held without approval government!
It was the other day when Erica Robin was crowned the first-ever Miss Universe Pakistan 2023!
In a controversial move, Karachi’s beauty queen Erica Robin will be the official representative of Pakistan at the Miss Universe pageant, scheduled to be held in El Salvador later this year.
Five women are reported to have competed in the controversial ‘Miss Universe Pakistan’ Pageant”.
Interim Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar has intstructed to Ministry of Foreign Affairs to contact the UAE government about a company organising a beauty contest to select contestants to represent Pakistan in the Miss Universe Pageant without any approval of the Pakistan government.
Miss Universe Pakistan Controversy
On Sep 14, Caretaker Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Murtaza Solangi issued a clarification on on social media that “The government and state of Pakistan are represented by state and government institutions. Our government has not designated any non-state and non-governmental person or institution for any such activity and no such person/institution can represent the state/government. The end.”
The information minister had made this clarification while responding to The News Editor Investigation Ansar Abbasi who had raised the matter on X (formerly Twitter).
“Who allowed five Pakistani girls to represent Pakistan in the Miss Universe beauty pageant? Either it was decided by Prime Minister Anwar-ul Haq Kakar or this decision was taken by any of his cabinet members or advisor? Can anyone represent Pakistan without the permission of the government of Pakistan?” he asked.
حکومتِ اور ریاستِ پاکستان کی نمائندگی ریاست اور حکومت کے ادارے کرتے ہیں۔ ہماری حکومت نے کسی غیر ریاستی اور غیر حکومتی فرد یا ادارے کو ایسی کسی سرگرمی کیلیے نامزد کیا ہے اور نہ کوئی ایسا شخص/ادارہ ریاست/حکومت کی نمائندگی کر سکتا ہے۔
ختم شد۔ https://t.co/rW5XGi2bV1— Murtaza Solangi (@murtazasolangi) September 13, 2023
Religious scholar Mufti Taqi Usmani also take notice of the matter and questioned the government to “take notice” of the matter and “take action against those responsible and desist itself from the matter”.
جنگ کی خبر ہے کہ پانچ دوشیزائیں عالمی مقابلہ حسن میں پاکستان کی”نمائندگی" كرينگی اگر یہ سچ ہے تو ہم کہاں تک نیچے کرینگے؟ حکومت اس خبر کا فوری نوٹس لیکر ذمہ داروں کے خلاف کارروائی کرے اور کم ازکم ملک کی “نمائندگی” کا تاثر زائل کرے
— Muhammad Taqi Usmani (Official) (@muftitaqiusmani) September 13, 2023
JI Senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan also reacted to the news.
"مس یونیورس" کے مقابلے کے لیے نوجوان خواتین کو "مس پاکستان" کے مقابلوں کے لیے تیار کرنا اور مقابلوں کا انعقاد کرنا شرمناک ہے۔ یہ پاکستان کی توہین ہے۔ پاکستان کی خواتین کی توہین اور استحصال ہے۔ پاکستان کے اندر اس مقابلہ حسن کے منتظمین کون ہیں؟ کون یہ شرمناک حرکت کررہاہے؟حکومت ان… https://t.co/ECYVZJUiNF
— Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan | سینیٹر مشتاق احمد خان (@SenatorMushtaq) September 13, 2023
Intelligence Bureau (IB) Report on Miss Universe Pakistan Controversy:
As reported, caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar earlier had directed the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to investigate who arranged the beauty contest and using Pakistan’s name to participate in the international event.
Following the directives, the IB has submitted its report to the interim prime minister.
“The rights/license to represent Pakistan for the contest of 2023 have been obtained by one Yugen Publishing and Marketing — a business group based in Dubai. The business group has created a website (houseofyugen.com) seeking applications from Pakistani women (aged 24-28, irrespective of their marital status) from 04.03.2023 onwards. The Dubai-based Yugen Group also has franchise rights for Miss Universe Bahrain and Miss Universe Egypt.”
The IB report reveals that these Pakistan-origin contestants have been selected through a poll from amongst a pool of 200 applicants from around the world. One of the five participants was to be crowned as the winner in an event scheduled on Thursday (Sep 14) at 7pm UAE time; the event was to be broadcast on the Miss Universe YouTube channel.
The report further added: “In Dubai, [the] Yugen Group is sponsoring the event and one Josh Yugen is learnt to be national director of Miss Universe Pakistan. [The] Yugen Group has also partnered with voting app ‘Choicely’ to give pageant fans a chance to vote for their favorite candidates.
“Voting lasted till 7pm on Wednesday (13.09.2023). The winner will represent Pakistan at the Miss Universe pageant [that is participated in by] more than 60 countries, in a month-long event which will culminate in [a] grand finale to be held in El Salvador on 18.11.2023 when the current title holder from US, R’Bonney Gabriel, will pass on her crown to the winner”.
According to the report, the claim is not factually correct although the organisation claims that the contestants ‘represent’ their countries.
Miss Universe Organization (MUO)
According to the information available on the Miss Universe Organization (MUO) website, ‘national directors’ are business entities/companies that apply to the MUO to get franchises for a particular country.
Furhermore, any business group can apply for the franchise licence for a token fee of around $1,000 after meeting certain requirements of the MUO.
However, these licensees do not require permission from the government of that particular country and only require that the nationals of that country be brought to the contest.
