Lahore: "It's just another girl who has dared to bare some skin and has managed to get some prize in a beauty pageant," says lifestyle writer Sadia Shah.

"What's the hype all about?" she asks referring to the media uproar over Mariyah Moten, 23, taking part in the Miss Bikini of the Universe beauty pageant as "official Pakistani" entrant.

"Everyone knows she didn't go there officially, she was not part of the Pakistani beauty industry; rather nobody knows her back home," says Shah.

"If we really do not have anything to do with her winning a prize, why endanger her title as Miss Best in Media?" she adds.

The gutsy Mariyah, who ventured out from the University of Houston in the United States to Beihai, a summer resort in south China to represent Pakistan in the pageant Miss Bikini of the Universe beauty pageant, hails from Karachi and moved to the United States eight years ago.

"I wanted something that would help me represent my culture and community in a positive way," she voices out her rationale behind this adventure.

While Mariyah's plans were to represent her "country" in the beauty pageant for a "good cause" many believe it was a mere stint for personal recognition. "I do not think it is such an issue that we should get worked up about. My friends and I and every other guy I know on earth watches beauty pageants on TV all the time. Even girls watch them. What's wrong really in having a Miss Pakistan finally out there?" says Adnan, 25 a medical student.

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