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2024 was a roller coaster — the kind of year that has you sit back and wonder how all of that fit into just 365 days.

We had elections aplenty, drama galore, dupattas being fixed without consent and a number of stories about cricketers — with some behaving badly. From outrageously opulent weddings to a certain not-so-beloved writer’s unimaginative explanation for meeting a woman at 4am, our top stories this year were an interesting mix.

10. Rihanna steals the spotlight at Anant Ambani, Radhika Merchant’s pre-wedding celebrations

Published March 2

One of the most talked about topics online in 2024 was the Ambani wedding — how much did it cost, who attended, what they wore and, most importantly, who was performing. Well, you couldn’t get much bigger than Rihanna, the Barbadian superstar who hasn’t been performing for her fans much in the last few years.

The Ambani clan pulled the singer out of her semi-retirement// and onto a stage in Jamnagar to perform her greatest hits in a terrible outfit replete with ripped underarm seams as part of their pre-wedding festivities.

That this story is our 10th most read this year encapsulates the strange fascination we all had with this over-the-top wedding and everything associated with it.

You can read the story here.

9. Haris Rauf calls for respect after video of heated argument with fan goes viral

Published on June 18

You can imagine our surprise when Haris Rauf was involved in a physical altercation with a couple of cricket fans — they weren’t his fans, clearly. The bowler was up in arms after a ‘fan’ made a very inappropriate remark about Rauf’s mother. Rauf immediately began moving towards the man and was pulled back by his wife and later blocked by other men who ask him to let it go.

He later posted a statement — not an apology — and said he would “not hesitate to respond accordingly” when his family is being criticised by fans.

You can read the story here.

8. Maryam Nawaz fixing a police officer’s dupatta and sharing a video of it online has polarised the internet

Published on February 28

If ever there was a polarising story, this would be it. Maryam Nawaz fixed a police officer’s dupatta without asking and the the internet went wild.

It’s unsurprising that this story landed in our top 10, because it was the talk of the town (and the office). Is it appropriate to touch someone’s dupatta, that too on camera? The debate stirred from this act was intense — too intense, we’d say — and people seemed to believe that those who criticised the Punjab chief minister were on the side of immodesty rather than opposed to a woman being touched without her consent.

You can read the full story here.

7. Bollywood filmmakers are obsessed with villainising Pakistan — the Fighter trailer proves just that

Published on January 26

Is it really a top 10 list without a story about India? In this case, it was a story about Indian film Fighter, which was in line with the many patriotic Bollywood films that seem to exist solely to highlight how sneaky and evil Pakistanis are. You’d think they’d find a new villain to star in their movies.

X (formerly Twitter) was quite fed up with it too, with many users wondering when the blatant propaganda would end. Indian audiences themselves seemed to be quite over Bollywood’s fixation with the “evil” Pakistan.

You can read the story here.

6. Met woman at 4:40am because doctor advised avoiding the sun, says Khalilur Rehman Qamar on his kidnapping

Published on July 22

Sometimes, life mimics art. And sometimes, artists who write terrible stories demonising women and say awful things about them fall prey to the oldest trick in the book — honey traps. Khalilur Rehman Qamar is known for both the dramas he writes and the drama he causes when he says inane things, mostly about women. This past summer, he was involved in drama of another kind when he was allegedly kidnapped and held for ransom.

According to the FIR, Qamar received a phone call from an unknown number close to midnight. The caller, who identified herself as Amna Urooj, claimed to be a fan and expressed a desire to collaborate with him on a TV drama.

The writer went to meet her at 4:40am, as one does, where he was soon accosted by seven armed men who robbed him and held him for ransom.

“I am sick and my doctor has strictly told me to not go out in the daytime for five years,” he said at a press conference following the incident. “Even if he hadn’t said that, we meet people at night and you don’t differentiate between men and women. When there’s no objection to me meeting men at night, then why should there be an objection to me agreeing to see this woman at the break of dawn? Because this happened at 4:40am, I had not agreed to go at night when I got the call. For the past 15 days, she was pestering me to see her.”

Ironically, following the incident, a 2019 interview of Qamar resurfaced in which he mockingly said that if women want equality, they should consider kidnapping a man — him.

You can read the story here.

5. Zindagi to remove Barzakh from YouTube Pakistan amid public discontent

Published on August 6

Barzakh released on YouTube to much fanfare. It starred Fawad Khan and Sanam Saeed after all, albeit as siblings, and fans were on tenterhooks, excited to watch the show and see what kind of fantastical world Asim Abbasi had created.

Unfortunately, the cinematography and story were overshadowed by public discontent over what many considered ‘provocative’ themes in the show. In light of the backlash, Zindagi decided to remove the show from Pakistani YouTube.

Abbasi, upon receiving hate for the show, had previously said, “With all due respect, if you find queer/non-heteronormative storylines ‘distasteful,’ please do not watch my content. I will always champion the rights of all and tell stories that we believe in.”

You can read the story here.

4. Shahid Afridi and Pro-Israel group go head to head on X after selfie ‘endorsing’ Israel goes viral

Published on June 20

This story was a fever dream, because it had so many comedic elements. Shahid Afridi stumbled on a pro-Israel demonstration, apparently didn’t read any of their signs, and agreed to take a selfie with them as they held pro-Israel pamphlets, according to him. According to them, he spoke to them of his “own free will” and posed for a selfie with hostage leaflets to “support our cause”.

The two groups began beefing on X, with everyone looking on wide-eyed, because who in the world would expect Shahid Afridi to get into a social media battle with a zionist group?

You can read the story here.

3. Sania Mirza says she and Shoaib Malik have been divorced for ‘few months’

Published on January 21

This story came a day after cricketer Shoaib Malik announced his third marriage. People were shocked and making all kinds of assumptions. Sania Mirza, the Indian tennis player who married Malik in 2010 and shares a son with him, took to social media — through her father — to clear the air and announce that she and Malik had been divorced for a few months.

This was the first time Mirza addressed rumours of her divorce, which were rife long before the announcement. She did, however, post several cryptic messages on Instagram about marriage that had gossipmongers aflutter.

You can read the story here.

2. ‘Goodbye forever’: Fans officially ‘quit’ after Pakistan loses a winning match against India in T20 World Cup

Published on June 10

No one has ever accused Pakistanis of not being dramatic. We’re dramatic as can be and when it comes to cricket, it’s even worse. Naturally, Pakistan’s loss to India in the T20 World Cup was a bitter pill to swallow. What made it worse was that we lost by the narrowest of margins — a mere six runs.

While there were a lot of jokes, beneath the banter and the tweets lay a deep-seated disappointment in Pakistani cricket.

You can read the story here.

1. In a shock move, Shoaib Malik and Sana Javed announce their marriage

Published on January 20

And our top story for this year was none other than Shoaib Malik announcing his marriage to Sana Javed after rumours of his separation from Sania Mirza reached a fever pitch. It isn’t surprising that this was our top story — Pakistanis love weddings, after all, and second (or in this case third) marriages are always a source of fascination.

This was Javed’s second marriage and Malik’s third and for most people, the news of their nuptials came out of nowhere.

You can read the story here.

If you want to learn more about our top stories, check out 2023’s, 2022’s or 2021’s.