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Oh 2022, what can we say about you? You were a rollercoaster ride of a year, with epic highs and some horrible lows. So much has happened this year and we bet you’ve forgotten about a lot of it — it’s been that kind of year after all. There were divorces, assassination attempts, slips of tongue, natural calamities, superheroes and legal battles and at the end of this wild year, we’re rounding up our top stories for you.

This year’s top stories showed us one thing — who run the world? Girls. Almost all our top stories this year were about women in some shape or form and we love it.

Published on April 23

Miss Trans Pakistan Shyraa Roy spoke to us about how her journey to the Miss International Queen pageant in Thailand was cut short because of lack of funds and support. Nonetheless, she powered on and told us what she has been through to make it to the top.

We’re glad people appreciated this story and wanted to read about Roy’s struggles.

Published on January 20

It was a case of she said, she said and then a lawyer said. Sharmila Faruqi wasn’t all too pleased when TV show host Nadia Khan posted a video of her mother Anisa Faruqi at a wedding, complimenting her makeup and style. The PPP leader initiated legal proceedings against her with the FIA.

Everyone loves some drama and we guess adding a dash of celebrity made it read-worthy.

Published on April 20

Ah sexism and misogyny, how we hope you get left in 2022. Former minister Fawad Chaudhry exhibited some top (or low, depending how you see it) level sexism when he went after Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar and called her a “low IQ woman” over an old interview of hers. He was quickly called out on Twitter by PTI and HRK supporters alike.

Kudos to this story for being reported so many times on our Instagram page that our account got shadow-banned! Don’t worry, we’re back and ready to call out more sexism this year.

Published on February 10

The late Aamir Liaquat’s second divorce may not have been as shocking as his third one, but people sure read about it a lot. If you think about it, his divorce from now actor Syeda Tuba Anwar set the stage for a very strange course of events that befell him in 2022.

Published on March 10

Words can’t express how glad we are that this piece is in our top 10 most read stories of the year. In March, we celebrated women — filmmakers, economists, chefs, entrepreneurs and it all started with our list on boss women. We love that you liked reading about women who are thriving in their fields and hope we can celebrate even more change-makers this year!

Published on March 22

What is it with Pakistanis and Esra Bilgic? They love her but they hate her, if you know what we mean. They love the character she plays in Ertugrul but they don’t seem to be too fond of the actual person behind the character, especially when it comes to the way she dresses. They did it before and this year, they did it again. Now we aren’t entirely sure whether our readers read this story because they too found it ridiculous or they were drawn in by the word bra, but unfortunately, we’re leaning towards the latter.

We even made a TikTok about just how ridiculous we found the situation.

Published on January 13

Is there anything Pakistanis love more than knowing what goes on inside someone else’s house? How about the price of someone’s house? The house featured in the hit show Parizaad symbolised a lot for the titular character and people were wowed to find out that it went on sale for Rs600 million in Islamabad. What a bargain!

Published on August 26

We were fearful when checking our analytics that this story hadn’t made it to the top, but we’re glad to report it’s number three on our list. This year, Pakistan was hit by widespread floods that ravaged the country and left one thirds of the population without a roof over their heads. But Pakistan has always been a country for the people by the people and it was the people that banded together to help their fellow country-people in a time of need. This story featured an exhaustive list of organisations accepting donations for flood relief efforts.

Remember though — the rains may be over but the devastation remains and many people still need your help.

Published on December 21

Mehwish Hayat replacing Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman? We can dream and so can the rest of the internet. You loved (or hated) the idea so much that you shot this story to number two on our list and it was published just 10 days before the end of the year! Now that’s some real interest.

Published on April 14

And on to our number one story of the year — Miss Pakistan World Areej Chaudhry talking about the importance of using your beauty pageant powers for good. Chaudhry brings a whole new meaning to beauty and brains and we’re glad people wanted to read about the importance of using your voice for to advocate for causes you believe in!

We couldn’t let you go without letting you read about our top five runners up.

• Pakistan’s women may be going pad-less but not because they want to

71,137 views

• Bilawal and his slip of tongue are the rays of sunshine we need in these dark times

67,990 views

• I was an extremely supportive wife: Sara Bhatti addresses ex-husband Mikaal Zulfiqar’s comments about their marriage

66,764 views

• Celebrities send prayers, well-wishes for Imran Khan, others injured in assassination attempt

64,950 views

• Amid uproar on social media, Netflix releases Jordanian film Farha on forced eviction of Palestinians in 1948

64,929 views