That’s a wrap: What did Dawn.com’s audience read most in 2024?
Welcome (back) to Dawn.com on the first day of 2025.
As we continue to report the news in its most original form, and find new and interesting ways to do so, here’s a snapshot of what you — our audience — read the most in 2024.
See the 10 stories with the highest number of views on Dawn.com below, with some surprises and some obvious entries.
10. Met Office forecasts heavy monsoon showers across the country from Aug 2 to 6
Published July 31
In late July, the Pakistan Meteorological Department issued a forecast for heavy rainfall for the start of August and since monsoon rains tend to set alarm bells ringing, this article drew readers from all over the country.
The Met Office’s predictions became a dreadful reality as the subsequent rains wreaked havoc in most parts of the country. Cities like Karachi and Lahore were flooded with rainwater for weeks which brought the metropolises to a standstill.
Pakistan experiences its monsoon season from July to August, typically receiving around 255mm of rain each month. However, last year it received record-breaking rainfall amid the impending climate crisis.
Read this story here.
9. Massive oil, gas reserves found in Pakistani waters: senior security official
Published September 7
This Dawn report caught many people’s attention as the discovery of a substantial deposit of petroleum and natural gas in Pakistan’s territorial waters was described to be so large that it could turn around the country’s economic fortunes.
Oil and gas exploration activities have been in decline in recent years, and were not being carried out until last year when Pakistan relaunched a programme aimed at recovering the untapped indigenous hydrocarbon resources.
Some estimates suggested that this discovery constitutes the fourth-largest oil and gas reserves in the world.
Read more about the reserves here.
8. What is the 26th Constitutional Amendment?
Published October 20
There were plenty of constitutional updates and legal terminologies in the news in 2024, including the contentious legislation known as the 26th Constitutional Amendment pertaining to the judiciary.
The legislation stripped the Supreme Court’s suo motu powers, set the chief justice of Pakistan’s (CJP) term at three years and empowered the prime minister to appoint the next CJP from among the three most senior SC judges.
With the amendment being passed in a late-night National Assembly session, after a flurry of political activity (particularly at Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s house), readers wanted to know what exactly it was all about.
Read about the changes made to the Constitution here.
7. Javelin star Arshad Nadeem ends Pakistan’s 40-year wait for Olympic gold
Published August 8
The entire nation watched with pure joy and pride as the 27-year-old Javelin star Arshad Nadeem set a new Olympic record by winning a gold medal and ending Pakistan’s 40-year wait for a win.
Ahead of the big day, Nadeem shared a heartfelt video message where he asked the nation for prayers. His humble words touched the hearts of many and his performance that night set off days of celebrations among a nation craving good news.
The Mian Channu-born athlete’s throw was Pakistan’s first individual gold medal, first track and field medal, and the second time a South Asian had a podium finish in track and field. It was also the sixth-longest throw ever, and the best in the world in 2024. (It was also the only time that Dawn.com featured confetti on its homepage in 2024.)
Read about his historic and wholesome win here.
6. Former DG ISI Faiz Hameed taken into military custody, court-martial initiated: ISPR
Published August 12
This story had everything that interests avid readers of Pakistani developments: a (former) spy chief, military, legal action, politics (as suspected at the time and confirmed in December) and even real estate. The news of former intelligence chief Faiz Hameed being taken into military custody marked the first time a court martial was initiated against a former spymaster in Pakistan.
His court-martial was initiated in connection with the Top City housing scheme scandal where the owner of the housing scheme filed a petition alleging that the ex-spymaster had misused his office, adding that crimes were committed against him and his family on Gen Hameed’s orders.
Gen Hameed was indicted for misusing powers and government resources, on allegations of violating the Army Act, four months after the arrest.
Know more about this case here.
5. Gulf employers not hiring Pakistanis due to ‘deplorable standard’
Published July 31
The Pakistani diaspora is made up of approximately 10.7 million individuals, primarily working in Saudi Arabia, UAE, the US, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Thus, it was an alarming revelation that Gulf employers were shifting their preferences to hire workforce from other regional countries, mainly because of the “deplorable standard” of Pakistani workers.
The Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis was presented a bleak picture of the situation of Pakistan labour force in Gulf countries. Stats such as Saudi authorities reporting that 90 per cent of all beggars arrested in the country were Pakistanis made their way to the public through this story, and raised questions as to how the situation would be dealt with, especially given the high number of Pakistanis seeking jobs in the region.
Read about the briefing here.
4. Courts must exercise caution in matters of faith: CJP
Published February 9
Former CJP Qazi Faez Isa came under fire following his verdict on the Mubarak Sani case when he overturned the petitioner’s conviction.
The petitioner was accused of distributing/disseminating a proscribed book, Tafseer-i-Sagheer, and had been arrested on Jan 7, 2023. He remained incarcerated for 13 months — more than double the permissible punishment. The court set aside the impugned orders and ordered the immediate release of the petitioner.
Later in July, it accepted the Punjab government’s plea to revisit its order, and declared that the right to profess religion and religious freedom, as ensured by the Constitution, is subject to law, morality and public order. This judgement kick-started a controversy and prompted a malicious campaign against the CJP.
On Aug 19, a group of charged protesters even managed to reach the SC to demonstrate against the judgement.
The controversy dialled down in Aug when the apex court accepted the Punjab government’s urgent application seeking omissions of certain portions from the court’s July 24 revised verdict after taking input from religious scholars.
Read the story on the court’s judgement here.
3. A harvest fit for a king
Published June 17
Never say only politics and politicians attract readers: the third most-read story of 2024 focused on the return of the king (of fruits). June marks the time of the year when mangoes finally appear in markets as scores of workers gather in searing heat across Sindh’s mango-growing regions to harvest and pack the fruit.
While Sindhri starts appearing on pushcarts in May, it is June that heralds the arrival of fully tasty fruit. Immature Sindhri usually gets picked first by growers, who harvest it as early as the end of April or early May, to capitalise on the market and export the fruit.
From farming practices to contractors, this article only added to the anticipation of mango season among Pakistanis (and global fans).
Read the harvest piece here.
2. Govt announces 4-day Eidul Fitr holidays from April 10
Published April 4
The Dawn.com newsroom may not have been off on Eid but the rest of Pakistan visited this story to mark their calendars for a four-day holiday prior the nearly always climactic sighting of the moon marking the end of Ramzan.
On April 10, the whole nation celebrated Eid across Pakistan after the Central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee sighted the Shawwal moon a day earlier. The country observed the festival on the same day as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Indonesia and several other countries.
Read this story here.
1. Live: Elections 2024
Published February 1
The ‘will it, won’t it happen’ conundrum spilling over from the year before ended on February 8 and more than four million people tuned in to Dawn’s elections blog as the country voted in the 12th general elections.
The elections were bumpy from start to finish: uncertainty, protests, court verdicts, election symbols, rigging allegations, claims to victory, and those Forms 45 and 47, to name a few, kept the newsroom running round the clock and the audience in Pakistan and across the globe engrossed — despite the internet disruptions that came and stayed with the polling process.
PML-N was eventually deemed victorious and Shehbaz Sharif became the prime minister but the outcome of the elections remains steeped in controversy.
Take a look at the coverage of the elections here.
Our top 11-15
The next five most-read pieces of 2024 (numbers 11-15) are:
Page views: 71,615
Page views: 68,957
Page views: 66,356
Page views: 66,262
Page views: 63,748
Compiled by Sabrina Haider.
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