severe overcrowding in prisons has been worsened by delays in the legal system and the war on drugs initiated by president rodrigo duterte. manila's city jail was built to accommodate 800 inmates. it's now housing more than 5,000 leading to a tuberculosis outbreak. the armenian opposition leader, nikol pashinyan, has called for a general strike after the governing republican party voted against his election as prime minister. and this video is trending on bbc.com. it's the moment a 26—storey building in sao paolo collapsed after being engulfed in flames. firefighters say they managed to evacuate most of the fifty families who lived there before the collapse, but they're still searching for survivors. that's all from me now. stay with bbc world news. now on bbc news, it's time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk.

i'm stephen sackur. women in the movie industry have taken the lead in a movement for equality, respect and an end to abusive male behaviour. the mantra, #metoo, has become a cultural phenomenon in the united states, but how far can it reach? my guest today is pakistan's biggest female movie star, mahira khan. in a culturally conservative, male—dominated country, can she be an agent of change? mahira khan, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. is this a good time to be a female actor in pakistan?

yes, i would say so. i think it's a good time to be a female in this world at the moment. it's a good time for us. but in pakistan, being female and being in the public eye, as you are, it's quite a sensitive place to be. yes, um, i would say it used to be, it used to be. right now, i don't think it's sensitive to be in the public eye. i think it's sensitive or it's a little bit challenging to break barriers, to sort of do the things that you want to do, you know. there's a particular question about the movie industry because i was looking at some astounding figures, going back to the ‘50s and ‘60s, there hundreds, i believe there were more than a thousand cinemas in pakistan and then by the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, after the rule or during the rule of general zia, the number of cinemas plummeted down to a low of something like 45 and you're only

just creeping up again. yes. so cinema and going to the movies in pakistan is a tradition that has been lost to many people. that's actually a good way to put it — lost — because it was there once upon a time, right? and then we suffered through... i guess, politics affected it and there was a lull. which what it did was, it did two things — one, of course, cinema got lost somewhere in all of this. the second thing it did, which was a good thing, was that all these writers and actors started coming towards television. that's why currently and for very many years, we have a very, very strong television industry because all these people did not really know where to go and all of the arts sort of converged into tv... but it's notjust about changing media, is it? it's also about cultural conservatism. i mean, pakistan has been swept by a sort of cultural conservatism which has militated against free expression in the cinema,

and that's really a problem for people like you. right, so that's exactly what the generation before me went through. by the time i came around, even, actually, while i was working, my debut film was probably one of two or three, maybe five films that came out that year — i mean, i think that's a large number that i'm quoting there, i think, but right after that, because, again, of the political climate, it changed. there was freedom as far as media was concerned. people were coming in, people were trying to invest into films and today, we are sort of on the path of a huge revival as far as cinema is concerned. the question is, what kind of cinema? you're here in london to mark the release at a film festival of your movie, verna, which is a fascinating example of what is and isn't possible in pakistani cinema today. it centres on you, you're the female lead character, and, sara, your character, is raped.

right. how difficult was it to make that movie in pakistan and to believe that it would find an audience in pakistan? well, it wasn't difficult to make it. the man who made it, he has made two previous films. the first one was khuda kay liye, which again, people at that time were like, "wow, what is this?" it was a brilliant film, but touched on very sensitive topics. you know, whether it was religion, whether it was politics, whether it was about how we treat women in our society, what all of that was touched upon in khuda kay liye, then he came out with bol... we should say, shoaib mansoor... shoaib mansoor, yes, absolutely. he's one of pakistan's leading film directors... absolutely. ..and respected around the world now. yes, respected around the world. and then came bol, which touched on even more sensitive issues, and then now he's made verna. so making a film with a man like shoaib mansoor was not difficult because

that's what he does. there is a disclaimer at the beginning of the movie which you made a point, i think, of tweeting out, it says: "everything in this film is imaginary. imaginary because the reality is too bitter to be told or shown. events shown in this film are like jokes compared to what has been happening in countries like ours. " was this a film made out of anger? yes, absolutely. absolutely. i can speakfor him, he will never ever speak out himself because he doesn't — once he wraps a film, he sort of goes back home and shuts his doors. so i know that it's definitely a film made out of anger and a lot of frustration, for sure. how do you make accessible rape in a country which, it has to be said, has a problem with sexual violence that is endemic. you know, it's domestic, it is pervasive, and groups in pakistan, like the human rights commission, and others,

talk about the reality that a woman is being raped in pakistan every two or three hours. right. how did take that on and respect how deep and ingrained the problem is in your country? well, it's difficult and that's something, before i went on to the sets, that's something i used to keep thinking about, because fortunately, i have not been through something as bad and cruel as rape, so i was very worried because there were so many people who were going to watch it. for me, as an actor, i really did not know how i can... i can sort of bring justice to something that was written like that, right. and also, there wasn't a scene which showed the rape. so there was no visual representation of the rape. shoaib did not want me to cry, there were times he'd be like, "no, no, no, you're doing too much, i don't want you to cry,

i what you to be angry." so i played it angry, almost how he wanted me to play it, almost he looked at rape, that's how i played it. so we're talking about anger driving the making of the film, but i imagine there was a new level of anger when you and shoaib mansoor heard that the board of censors in pakistan was going to ban the movie. yes, yes, of course. i mean, i was... yeah, more than anger... because i'll tell you what, as much as shoaib i was angry, i looked at it from a very different point of view. i couldn't believe it. every time i would read these stats, every time i would go onto forums, it would just keep breaking my heart, you know. so when it this happened, when the ban, when i got a call and they told me that it might get banned, the first thought in my head was "

because if this were to happen, then this would be the second film of mine that would have been banned that year, you know, um... and yet, you told me it is a great time to be a female actor in pakistan. it is, i will tell you why it is though, because, and this is something about the ban of verna. someone asked me, yesterday, "what do you say about the ban of verna?" i said, well, you look at it as it being banned, i look at it as it being nearly banned and then being released, because here was a time — i don't know what it would have been, 10 or 20 years before, you know, with pakistan and how it would have fared, i don't know that — all i know is that my film was nearly going to get banned and the entire country — journalists, activists, women and men together — came out, whether it was on social media or on tv, how ever, they came out and said, "we are not going to let you ban this." do you feel so bleak about pakistan today that women, who have underground these terrible experiences, get no sort of resolution orjustice or serious accountability from the political system, from the community,

because your character in the movie, she has to take her...vengeance herself... revenge herself, right. and it is violent and it is horrible. yes. is that the message you're telling me about pakistan today? no, i'm not, that's not the message i'm telling you. and i'm not saying this so that, you know, i'm not sitting here and i'm not going to fluff it up, and tell you that does not happen, of course it happens, you have the statistics right in front of you, right, but — but — right after verna, i mean, the zainab casejust happened, the little girl who got raped, and again, everybody came out, everybody spoke about it... but it does not stop it happening. no, it eventually does. this is the problem — there are two things and i keep talking about this — this is not a pakistan—centric epidemic, this is a world—over problem, and how do we stop it? i mean, look at us, we have the best — as far as we are concerned — we have the correctjudiciary

sitting there, we have police, we have everything, and still we are not able to stop it, so somewhere i feel we are failing on two levels, you know. i feel we do not have grassroot level education and awareness about this. you know, there are so many — i mean, if you read up more about this — so many of these cases, whether it's abuse or rape, takes place inside their own homes. and then there is shame attached to it. and these things do not get over in one day. we keep talking about change and i've been saying this, even in hollywood, they keep saying, you know, real change is coming about — i think real conversation is what's happening right now. well, conversation is an interesting point and i have noticed that since the weinstein thing broke in america, there have been some very prominent pakistani women who have began to speak in public about their own experiences and being abused, for example, as children. there's frieha altaf, nadia jamil, maheen khan —

if you ask me, personally, i came from a home where i was allowed to sort of... i had the freedom of choice. i was told that don't feel ashamed if something like this happens to you, scream, come to me, talk to me, tell me. so my mother taught me that, she's a teacher herself. i was aware of these things. post—that, i lived in america for a while. so i consider myself very lucky, actually, because i have basic awareness, i have the exposure to understand these things. but we're talking about pakistan at large here and, yes, there is a problem because we attach... ..you know, honourand shame, all these words, they're so misconstrued. let me ask you something personal.

0bviously, we've talked about sexual violence because your movie's about that subject, but there are many other ways in which i wonder whether the pakistani movie industry, the culture, is ready to recognise different ways in which women live their lives. for example — it's personal — but you are a divorcee, you've raised a son single—handedly. yes. do you believe that recognition of the strength, the independence, the resilience of modern pakistani women is properly reflected in the culture of your country? well, you're sitting opposite me and i am being interviewed by you and, as you said, i am a single mother, i'm a divorcee, i'm a single mother sitting right here in front of you, i am a reflection of my country, also a reflection so... or are you seen by some as an anomaly, "0h, she's westernised, she had an education in the us, she's privileged, she's different." i tell you something, if i say so myself, i do not think...of course, i'm sure i appeal to the classes as well,

but i believe that i appeal to the masses of my country. how is it possible that i appeal to the masses if i am so different from them? we've talked about all of the sensitivities in pakistan for you, trying to express yourself freely in the country today. relationship with india. now, you are at the centre of this, in a way, because you had a breakout career moment a couple of years ago when you made a movie, raees, which was a classic big budget bollywood movie with shah rukh khan, one of bollywood's biggest stars, and yet it all went horribly wrong. how gravely disappointing has your experience of the tensions between india and pakistan as they affect the movie industry been? to be honest, i was more excited about raees being released

in pakistan than anywhere else, because i wanted was to sit there with my best friends, and my child, azlan, and the audience, and watch this. and i didn't get to. you couldn't. but you know why you couldn't — because the pakistani censorship board deemed that raees was an ugly, horrible, unacceptable depiction of muslims. i think that if raees was released at any other time, i think this would not have been banned. because again, these are a handful of people deciding it, and i think their decisions are sometimes based on things that

don't even concern the film, sometimes. so, you know, i don't think that was the reason. they said it was the reason. they said it, but i don't know — if raees was released today, would it have been released? well, in a way, things have got even worse since then. you made the movie, and then very shortly after you made it, the indian film industry declared that pakistanis were persona non grata as actors, or contributors at all, to their movie industry. right. so you couldn't even go and promote the movie in india. yes, yes. so it was a two—way thing. we got stuck under this — under the political fire, really, nothing else. but we, by the way — pakistan is still showing indian films. we haven't banned indian films at all. well, some are banned.

i mean, it is a very intermittent and sporadic thing. but frankly, the pakistani film industry, it seems to me, depends upon indian movies. i mean, your cinemas get more audience for bollywood movies than any other. and yet, because of politics, many of these movies are now not shown in pakistan. we talked about anger earlier. as an artist and an actor, how angry do you get that you are caught in this political crossfire? well, at that time, yes, i was angry. i was sad, and angry, and there were moments of disappointment, and just hurt, you know? now i've come to a place where i believe that that anger doesn't really, you know, make me a better actor. it doesn't do anything for me as a person. so i have let go of that, because at that time i was in the mix of it. you could argue it sort of stalled your career,

because you were on a trajectory to become a major bollywood as well as pakistani film star, and now you cannot be that. well, no. you know, bollywood was never really the aim, actually. i mean, sure, you could argue that i could have done more films there. for sure, i could have. but right after raees, i had already started working on verna, even before this happened, so my focus was always on pakistan. let's be honest. the pakistan film audience, as we've discussed, is sizeable, and the movie industry is reviving, but it's a dwarf compared to the massive machine that is the indian film industry. so if you want to reach hundreds of millions of people, and become a megastar, you need to be a star in bollywood as well as in pakistan. and now it seems that route is cut off for you, and ijust wonder how bitterly disappointed you feel? well, at that time i did. at that time i did. but i will tell you what — like, i can't explain it. i'm sure from your point of view that seems to be a very big thing, and at that time it was.

but currently ijust feel it's just something else to be working and be part of this movement in the film industry at the moment. because how i look at it is that 20 years from now, when, you know, either my son or kids from today want to become actors, we will have set, you know, this industry for them, which they won't have to struggle so much. it seems to me that, you know, there is such insecurity on both sides of this dispute, both in pakistan and in india, each insecure about the other. and you, when you try to sort of form cultural partnerships across that border, you get caught up in it. 0ne specific one i'm thinking about is, i think a website or somebody got hold of a picture of you sharing a moment, cigarettes, with an indian actor off—set. in pakistan, social media went nuts. so many people were

hugely critical of you. how dare she, and she's hanging out with an indian? how much pressure do you feel? yes, so that was the first time, actually, in my entire career that i was caught up in a so—called controversy. and it was strange, because there were so many thoughts involved. 0ne, obviously, you feel violated. you're in a personal, down—time moment, and someone has just photographed you. two, obviously there was an uproar, because here i was, someone who was extremely loved in pakistan, and they consider me... you know, they sort of keep me up on this pedestal. you know, they treat me with a lot of love and a lot of respect, and there are certain things that i didn't realise that they didn't want to see me do. at that point, yes, it was crazy, honestly, because it lasted for a while. it became a national topic, a national debate, every channel.

it was crazy, it was ridiculous. but what has happened post that is even better. the backlash in yourfavour, people defending you ? yes. you saw that, right? i have seen that, i understand that. i suppose we have skirted around this, but i had to ask you directly. in pakistan today, the religious authorities, and extremely conservative imams in particular, they still hold an enormously powerful sway in the country. i'm just looking at an extraordinary quote from maulana sheerani for the council for islamic ideology, criticising laws in punjab which are specifically designed to protect women from abuse. he said the clauses in this particular bill, you know, defending the rights of women, will eventually lead to the breakup of society. this is the pakistan you live in. no, i think that's a very myopic view of pakistan. i think that is a quote from an imam in pakistan. i do not look at pakistan like that.

again, like i said, i would not be sitting here, sharmeen 0baid—chinoy would not be winning an oscar, there are so many others. like, i'm sitting in front of you. sometimes i feel, do i even deserve to be sitting in front of you? there are so many people you can interview, who have done so many more greater things in pakistan, who are probably not recognised enough. well, i have been to pakistan a couple of times. we have interviewed human rights workers, we have interviewed politicians, we have interviewed all sorts of pakistanis. but it strikes me as extraordinarily interesting today, in 2018, to talk to somebody like you, trying to navigate through. right, and this is what i feel will be my win — if i can navigate through, and i can still talk about what's happening, and issues, and show the women and the men, you know, the public of pakistan, that it's possible, that there are possibilities.

coming back to this quote, i'm not sure who this man is. you told me he was... well, the council of islamic ideology is his organisation. so again, extremists anywhere, anywhere, there is a huge problem with that, anywhere around the world. and we're seeing it with america, as well. we're seeing it with first world countries, as well. so we have to... i mean, and this is the problem, the disparity that keeps on increasing. and people like me, we are the middle ground. we have to sort of bring it together. but do you ever, in a darker moment, think to yourself, you know what? if my desire to work with indian colleagues in bollywood is being thwarted, some of the subject matter that i really want to address in pakistan is becoming extraordinarily difficult — and yes, verna was un—banned. your next movie, who knows? do you ever think, as an artist, i don't need this — i want to maybe think about moving to the united states, or to london, to europe, because there i will be able to express myself

so much more freely? i have never thought that. i can't. it's my home, it's my country, and i don't think that i can tell any story better than the story of my own country, than the stories of my countrymen. who else would do that? i mean, i want to do that. i want to be able to bring out stories like verna, as well as stories which are of a modern and new generation, like ho mannjahaan, which is a film i did of the youth of pakistan. and like you said, because we are artists, i think that is a problem we all suffer. we are dreamers, so we are constantly looking at what is going to happen. and honestly, this is all i aim to achieve, all of the time — that one day i will go to a cinema house and there just won't be enough space to fill in. mahira khan, thank you very much

for being on hardtalk. thank you. good morning. the day ahead is a "getting better" kind of day. after a pretty particularly wet start for some, some heavy rain around first thing, rain will clear most areas at least through the day, and then we're into a story of sunshine and one or two showers. this is the weather system bringing in the wet weather overnight, into the morning. clearing away from western scotland, northern ireland as we start the day, so temperatures will take a little bit of a dip late in the night here.

but elsewhere, not quite as cold a start to the day as we saw yesterday morning. but, for the commute, it will be a thoroughly wet one. eastern scotland, a good part of central england and eastern wales, a few showers in the east. but a not too much wet weather early on, but it does turn windier through the middle part of the day. as the rain clears from central and western parts, we see sunshine and just one or two showers. some of those showers could be wintry over the tops of the scottish mountains, some hail mixed in too. and temperatures down on what we saw tuesday, but pleasant enough in the south where you have the sunshine. now, the rain will be last to clear east anglia and the south—east in the late afternoon and early evening, and clear skies to take it into wednesday night. most will be dry. but what does happen through wednesday night into thursday is that, with the jet stream dipping southwards just temporarily, we'll see some slightly cooler air push its way in. so it'll be a chillier start once again on thursday morning. don't be surprised in eastern scotland and central and eastern england if there's a touch of frost

in one oi’ two areas. but a lovely sunny start to the day here, before cloud increases from the west. in the west we'll see sunny spells, but always a bit more cloud, and the cloud will thicken up in northern ireland and western scotland, producing some spots of drizzle, some heavier bursts of rain for 0rkney and shetland through the afternoon. temperatures will be on the rise once again. so, finish thursday and go into friday, we'll see winds falling lighter across the south. there could be quite a bit of cloud to begin with, a bit misty in places, but the cloud will break up, some sunny spells coming through. the chance in western parts of england and wales of a little bit of drizzle here and there, and that'll be the case in scotland and northern ireland. but most will be dry and when the cloud does break, milder air is working its way in. temperatures mid to high teens. and, with the jet stream pushing its way into the weekend, we bring ever milder air to just about all. so temperatures will be a bit of a shocker for bank holiday weekend, and high pressure dominates. mainly across southern areas.

have to watch these weather fronts bringing some occasional rain to scotland and northern ireland, particularly through saturday night into sunday. but for the bank holiday weekend, as things warm up, temperatures high teens, low 20s, and most places will stay dry. this is newswday. i'm rico hizon in singapore. the headlines: a major side effect of the philippines' war on drugs: severe overcrowding in prisons. we have a rare insight into manila's city jail. and just to give you an idea of the conditions, have a look through here. hundreds of people sleeping side—by—side, barely any room to move in the night. armenia's protest leader says a decision by parliament to block his bid for prime minister is a declaration of war on the people. i'm kasia madera in london. also in this programme: mark zuckerberg admits it's been

an intense year for facebook but insists he's dealing with the privacy scandal.