A court in Pakistan has summoned the creators of a wildly popular television series after a petition was filed demanding they apologise for portraying Pakistani women as “greedy, selfish and non-professional”.

In the petition filed at the Sindh high court last month, lawyer Sana Saleem said the television series Meray Paas Tum Ho (I Have You) was “ridiculing a woman who makes the same decision as every other man in society”.

The series followed the story of a married couple whose relationship falls apart when the woman has an affair with a wealthy man. Pakistani television dramas routinely show women forgiving cheating husbands, but this series presented a fresh question: should a man forgive his unfaithful wife?

The show polarised the country. Women turned to Facebook and Twitter to call out the show and the writer, Khalilur ur Rehman Qamar, for his misogynistic storytelling. As the show gained popularity, Qamar courted controversy when he appeared on talk shows to justify the script and made statements such as “women should gang rape men if they want equality”, and “women are able to resist temptation, but men cannot”.

The 23 episodes ran from August 2019 to January this year on channel ARY Digital, becoming the most watched TV show in Pakistan. The finale was watched by 80 million viewers and was screened in cinemas across the country, raking in a record-breaking 38 million rupees (£414,231) on the first day in ticket sales.

The show had a huge impact and hurt women. The courts have a duty to correct something that negatively affects society Sana Saleem, lawyer

Television critic and journalist Mahwash Ajaz said: “These characters are unrealistic: overtly beautiful and modern, but also astoundingly stupid. Only a man could write such a script.”

However, many viewers sided with the character of the male lead, the victim of the infidelity, and praised him for one particularly controversial scene in which he tells his wife’s lover that she’s “barely worth spare change” and not the 50 million rupees the businessman had offered him for a divorce.

The court has summoned the producer, Humayun Saeed, who also plays the lead role, to appear on Thursday along with the lawyers of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority.

Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar has said if the bench finds that the show features immoral discourse, action will be taken against the producers.

The case is significant. Although it is not uncommon in Pakistan for people to ask the courts to mediate in this way, it is unusual for the petitioner to demand justice for women. A separate petition to stop the airing of the final episode of the show was thrown out last month.

Sana Saleem said: “The show had a huge impact and hurt women. The courts have a duty to correct something which is negatively affecting society.”

In her petition, she also objects to the storylines of an unmarried couple living together and a six-year-old child playing Cupid to set up his father and schoolteacher.

However, lawyer Reema Omer said prohibiting content, regardless of its “offensive” nature, is an anathema to the freedom of expression. “It is not the business of the state to decide what people should and should not watch on television unless the content violates certain clearly defined limitations set by law, such as incitement to violence, for example.”

Omer added that critiquing the show in the media was a “far more potent way” to respond to sexism than censorship and court directions to make the actors apologise.

Salman Iqbal, the founder and CEO of ARY Digital, defended the show. “Pakistani dramas for years have shown men abusing and cheating on women, yet no petitions were filed by men against such content. So why now?

“If Tom kills Jerry in the cartoon, should we feel compelled to launch a campaign for animal rights? No, we should just enjoy it. [We need to] forget about the nitty-gritty for a while and experiment to see what the audience responds to. It’s fiction and it’s fun.”