She had just turned 17. The video celebrating her birthday was still active on TikTok, where the scene included pink balloons, a cream cake, and a girl smiling at the camera with the backdrop of the Margalla Hills behind her, when Sana Yousaf was shot twice in the chest at her home in Islamabad’s G-13 sector. 

This occurred on June 2, 2025. Her killer, a man named Umar Hayat (a 22-year-old), came from Faisalabad for her birthday celebrations. He killed her after entering her home when she refused to open the door. Sana had over a million followers on different social media platforms. She utilized her popularity to raise awareness about Chitrali culture and promote female education.

Sana wanted to be a doctor, but she was killed instead, which sparked nationwide outrage with protests at the National Press Club, trending hashtags on Pakistani Twitter, and a Senate committee calling her parents to explain what went wrong. What went wrong, according to some people, was not just a madman’s delusion but a failed system that had let her down even before he showed up at her doorstep. 

Almost a year later, the question this article aims to answer is rather straightforward: Has anything really changed? 

Ask anyone who’s been through it, and they will confirm that getting famous on social media in Pakistan is something that happens instantly and something that comes at a cost that you hadn’t even considered. 

Ali Gul Pir, an established musician and creator, vividly recalls the moment when everything changed for him. He released his first hit song, and the next thing he knew, he was on a public bus where strangers recognized him. “It was overnight,” he said. “I became very conscious of the fact that almost everywhere I went, people knew me or knew my work.” 

With this sudden fame came the restructuring of his life. He realized that his life in the public sphere would never be the same. Public life and private life had to be maintained as entirely separate entities. “You kind of learn to divide yourself into two,” he explains. 

It also meant that private life could not be the same anymore. In a country where fame is synonymous with scrutiny, his wife, who was a doctor by profession, also became a part of his life in the public eye. Rumors spread about Ali that he was associated with the Illuminati, that he had been paid to attack the reputation of ethnic groups. “You read about these things, and it does affect your mental health. You trust fewer people. You don’t let yourself just be.” 

For Arsalan Ihsan, a professional model and social media influencer who came into the business at a more advanced age than others, having an established identity helped. Having gone to Oxford, specializing in math, and having worked at multinational firms, Arsalan felt, as he puts it, “a lot of security.” 

If anyone at a wedding ever made any derogatory remarks regarding his profession, they wouldn’t have been able to get to him. However, Arsalan also admits that his peaceful state of mind owes itself to his privilege as well. “Maybe my experience has been rather smooth,” he says. “I’m not as big a deal,........

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