A teenage actress in Pakistan is in a critical condition after a television producer threw acid in her face when she turned down his marriage proposal.

Film and stage star Bushra Waiz, 18, was asleep in the courtyard of her home in Nowshera, northwest of Islamabad, before she was attacked about 3am Saturday morning.

“A man climbed the wall of our house in the early hours, threw acid on my sister and fled,” Bushra’s brother, Pervez Khan, told AFP.

Dr Suhail Ahmad at the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar said Waiz had 33 per cent burns injuries on her face and shoulder.

Bushra Waiz’s mother and brother also sustained burns while protecting her and the family has lodged a complaint against a local TV drama producer, Shaukat Khan. The family says the producer was angry with Bushra’s refusal to marry him.

Another brother, Akhtar Waiz, told Dawn.com the pair were also fighting over unpaid wages.

“I couldn’t see him myself, but I am sure he was Shaukat as my sister had refused to continue working in his dramas and that’s why he resorted to this act of violence,” he said.