Claim: Islamabad has been ranked the world’s “second most beautiful city”.
Fact: There is no basis for the claim as no source, survey or data has been provided as justification. The claim appears to be based on a 2014 article on a now-defunct website and that, too, did not offer any statistics or survey results. In multiple reputable ranking resources and indexes, Islamabad is either not in the top 10 cities, ranked way below or not included at all.
On 6 October 2024, Gazette Now posted (archive) a visual depicting the Faisal Mosque in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, alongside text that reads as follows:
“Islamabad ranked second most beautiful capital in the world after London”
The post is captioned as follows:
“Islamabad has been ranked as the second most beautiful capital city in the world, following London. Known for its lush greenery, peaceful environment, and modern infrastructure, Islamabad stands out among global capitals for its unique charm. The city boasts popular attractions such as Faisal Mosque, Daman-e-Koh, and Rawal Lake, offering stunning views and tranquil getaways for both residents and visitors. For more follow @gazettenowofficial”
We found the related article on Gazette Now’s website. While the write-up focuses on attractions and public places in Islamabad, it does not provide any source to justify the claim that the capital has been ranked as the “second most beautiful” city in the world.
Fact or Fiction?
An online search only yielded posts and articles regurgitating the same claim without any evidence to back up the claim. In fact, many of these even have the same text copy-pasted from one another.
We also came across a Letter to the Editor, titled “Container city,” written by Islamabad-based citizen Hira Ayaz and published in The Express Tribune on 7 October 2024.
The letter discussed how Islamabad, which is “ranked as the world’s second most beautiful capital city after London”, has been negatively impacted by political unrest, resulting in frequent traffic disruptions due to law enforcement agencies’ action against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) protesters. It also calls for both the government and the party to look for solutions that allow for peaceful expression and do not disrupt daily life for residents.
Interestingly, the same letter was rehashed by Pakistan Observer, which published it on 8 October 2024 under “Voice of the People”.
Prior to that, in 2021, global travel marketplace Skyscanner’s Horizon Report revealed that Islamabad had become “the top trending destination in the UK for summer 2021”, according to an article in The Independent. The analysis was based on changes in the “search ranking of small versus large cities in 2021 vs 2019” and that Pakistan’s capital saw “a wave of searches as family and friends plan reunions” after months of lockdowns and restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Going further back to 2014 and 2015, we found that social media posts, news outlets, and online discussion forums shared the same claim, linking it to Top Ten Findings, a website that described itself as “a premium and trusted source towards knowledge” but is now apparently defunct.
Interestingly, one of the comments under the 14 May 2015 Facebook post by Pakistani actor Hamza Ali Abbasi noted that the article has “no surveys, no data at all, not even an opinion of a second person, and horrible english”. Another said it was “purely subjective” and “opinionated with no set criteria” and a third noted that “people should try authentic sources inspite of getting overwhelmed by merely blogs”.
Moreover, some others pointed out another list from the same website that ranks Pakistan as the “dirtiest” country in the world, pointing out the conflicting views.
We found the source link but the website is now deleted and, as of 8 October 2024, shows the text, “toptenfindings.com is coming soon. This domain is managed at NameBright.com”. NameBright is a domain registration website.
However, we were able to find an archived version as early as 3 December 2013, indicating that the blog was published on or before that date. It provides no verifiable source or data and is written by a “William”, whose bio at the time was: “My name is William, i have done Masters in IT. My interests are in web development, blogging, finding and creating top 10 lists, share knowledge, watching movies, eating and i love to spend time with fiends.”
Also in 2015, we found two news articles — one published in Dawn and the other in HuffPost — that mention the phrase “the second most beautiful capital” in connection with Islamabad.
Written by journalist Ikram Junaidi, the Dawn report attributed the claim to the Capital Development Authority (CDA), a government corporation, and stated that the phrase appeared on billboards in the capital city. It quoted a representative of the company that owned the board as saying, “The CDA placed the current advertisement on the board on the occasion of initiating work on the widening of Islamabad Highway. We have nothing to do with the advertisement.”
The publication also quoted “an official of the directorate of municipal administration in the CDA” — who spoke off the record — as questioning “the criteria for the ranking of the beautiful capitals”. According to the report, he said, “I asked about it and then came to know that things which were kept in mind while ranking the cities included green areas, population density, planning, infrastructure and mountain views.”
The HuffPost article, on the other hand, was authored by a contributor named Sabreena Razaq Hussain, who wrote, “The capital city Islamabad is often referred to as one of the most beautiful capital cities in the world”. According to the publication, the piece “was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform” and that “contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site”.
The same piece appeared in The Express Tribune as well and a hyperlink in the article led us, once again, to the Top Ten Findings website. In neither publication did Hussain provide any source or data for the claim. Interestingly, the “writer based in the UK” has published pro-PTI articles — here, here, here, and here — and we found that she has been mentioned as the president of the party’s South-West UK chapter, according to its website and Facebook page.
We also observed that the HuffPost article was published on 15 July 2015, less than 10 days after the Dawn report, which was published on 6 July 2015 and only attributed the claim to the CDA. This indicates that Hussain only picked the claim to highlight the positives of Pakistan, which, according to her, is “one of the most misunderstood countries”.
Interestingly, she also claimed in the same piece that the PTI’s 2014 sit-in “broke the record of the longest sit in protest in the world”; this, too, is false as the longest sit-in was close to six months in 1960, according to Guinness World Records. Even the Wikipedia page of “Sit-in”, which states that the demonstration was only “the longest-lasting public sit-in in Pakistan’s history”, does not provide a source.
World rankings
Soch Fact Check decided to check various reputable city rankings and indexes to see if any of them listed Islamabad.
The Global Cities Index by Oxford Economics ranks Islamabad at the 578th position.
In the Global Liveability Index 2024 by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), none of the top 10 cities include Pakistan’s capital.
In Mercer’s Quality of Living City Ranking 2023, Islamabad is ranked 206th.
The Smart City Rank 2024 by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) put Islamabad at the 116th rank.
Numbeo’s Quality of Life Index 2024 mid-year report ranks Islamabad at the 121st position, with a Quality of Life Index of 133.58 and a Cost of Living Index of 21.5, with the 215th rank.
Time Out’s 50 best cities in the world in 2024 and 20 best cities for culture do not include any Pakistani city, nor does the Global Power City Index (GPCI) by The Mori Memorial Foundation and Kearney’s 2023 Global Cities Report (GCR).
Condé Nast Traveler, the World’s 100 Best Cities website, and Far and Wide, a travel and lifestyle website that provides World Capital Cities rankings, also do not mention any Pakistani city.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found that the claim has surfaced multiple times across the years since 2014.
Some of the most viral recent posts on Facebook can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
The claim was posted here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here on Instagram, here and here on X (formerly Twitter), and here on TikTok.
Interestingly, we found that multiple real estate businesses also shared the claim on their social media pages and brochures here, here, here, here, here, and here. This was also the trend in 2023, 2022, and 2021, as can be seen here, here, here, here, and here.
In fact, the ride-hailing app Careem also shared the claim in one of its Instagram posts in 2022 with the caption: “Did you know that #Islamabad was once voted the second most beautiful capital city in the world? 🇵🇰💚 discover the city and many others in #Pakistan with #Careem”.
Conclusion: The claim is false as it does not provide any source, survey or data. It is likely sourced from a 2014 article on a now-defunct website and that, too, did not offer any statistics or survey results. In multiple reputable rankings resources and indexes, Islamabad is either not in the top 10 cities, ranked way below or not included at all.
Background image in cover photo: Ehtesham Chaudhary
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