Pakistan Welcomes It's First Cross-Dressing TV Host

<snip>

Karachi, Pakistan -- By day, Ali Salim's chin is covered with stubble. He wears scruffy jeans and feeds his taste for cigarettes. But at night he puts on a sequined sari and high heels and transforms himself into Nawazish Ali -- catty chat-show queen and South Asia's first cross-dressing television host.

"She's every woman's inspiration and every man's fancy," said 27-year-old actor Salim, his nails painted gold and his eyebrows plucked after filming the latest episode of "Late Night with Begum Nawazish Ali," a risque show at the leading edge of Pakistan's unlikely television boom.

His creation -- a snobby, gossipy middle-aged woman who flirts with her guests and flashes her dead husband's jewels -- has captivated a young audience eager for satirization of Pakistan's staid politicians and unafraid of sexual ambivalence.

The show is perhaps the most notable example of a television explosion triggered four years ago when Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf ordered deregulation of the airwaves. It is also pushing at the boundaries of what is considered acceptable in this conservative country.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/05/17/MNG5KIT1E71.DTL