Misbah Arshad Is Pakistan's Fourth Miss Universe Titleholder

Misbah Arshad was crowned Miss Universe Pakistan on 20 August 2026. She is the fourth woman to hold the title, and she succeeds Roma Riaz.

She will represent Pakistan at the 75th Miss Universe in Puerto Rico in November.

The final itself was held in the Philippines, which is a detail worth coming back to.

The four titleholders

Pakistan has only been sending an entrant since 2023, so the whole history fits in one table.

Erica Robin's top 20 in 2023 remains the mark to beat. That is a useful thing to hold on to when the coverage in November arrives, because a placing is a genuinely difficult thing to achieve against a field that size.

Who she is

Arshad is a psychology student, and this is not her first international pageant.

Dawn reports that she has previously represented Pakistan at Miss International 2023 in Japan and Miss Supranational 2024 in Poland. Other outlets report that she won Miss Pakistan World 2023 and Miss Aura Pakistan 2023.

Those accounts are not necessarily in conflict, since a national title is often what sends someone to an international contest. But we have not seen a single source carry both, so we are attributing each rather than blending them into one biography.

Several outlets also report that she was born in 2000, lives in Munich and studies at the University of Hagen. Dawn does not carry those details, so we pass them on as reported rather than as established.

If those reports are right, she joins a pattern: the 2025 titleholder was British Pakistani. Which document a Pakistani abroad actually holds, and what it entitles them to, is set out in our NICOP and POC guide.

What she said

On winning, Arshad said:

"Failure doesn't define whether you are a winner or not. What does is keeping hope alive, continuing to put effort and becoming better with every step."

The line reads differently once you know the context. In the final question round she was asked whether her ten year old self or her eighty year old self would put the harder question to her. She said the younger one would ask how life had turned out, and that she would explain the importance of rising through failure.

For somebody who had already been to two international pageants without taking this title, that is a fairly direct answer about her own record.

The final was not held in Pakistan

Here is the part most of the coverage mentions in passing and does not examine.

The coronation took place in the Philippines. Last year's was held in Raa Atoll, in the Maldives.

So in both years we can confirm, the woman who represents Pakistan at Miss Universe has been chosen outside Pakistan.

We are being careful with that sentence. We could not establish where the 2023 and 2024 finals were held, so we are not saying the contest has never taken place in the country. Two confirmed years is what we have, and two is what we will claim.

The organisers have not published a reason for holding it abroad, and we are not going to invent one. It is simply a fact about the contest that is worth noticing, and it shapes who realistically enters.

What happens in November

The 75th Miss Universe takes place in Puerto Rico, with reports naming San Juan and a date in late November.

1. The field is large. In 2024 there were 125 candidates including Pakistan's, which is the scale a placing has to come out of.
2. A top 20 is a real result. Erica Robin managed it in 2023 and nobody has repeated it.
3. Preparation runs for months, not weeks, and most of it happens away from cameras.
4. Expect a second news cycle in November, when the contest itself is held.

We will cover the result when it comes rather than the speculation before it.

What we could not verify

This piece is built from reporting rather than from a document or an event we attended, and it is worth being exact about that.

We have not confirmed the venue name or the number of finalists from an organiser statement. Reports naming the Rosal Park Hotel in Manila and ten finalists appear in some outlets and not in others.

We have not confirmed her age, city of residence or university from a primary source.

We have not confirmed the exact date of the Miss Universe final in Puerto Rico, only the month and the edition number.

We did not find an official Miss Universe Pakistan statement setting out the runners up, so none are named here.

Note on pictures

This article carries our own graphics rather than a photograph of the coronation.

Press photographs of the event are held by agencies, and a credit line is not the same thing as a licence. Where we cannot license or lawfully embed an image, we would rather publish our own artwork than borrow somebody's work and hope a byline covers it.

If you are looking for photographs of the night, go to the outlets that licensed them, or to the Miss Universe Pakistan accounts directly.

For anyone whose own travel plans are the reason they are reading about Puerto Rico in November, the paperwork end of leaving the country starts with applying for a Pakistani passport.

Questions readers are asking

Who is Miss Universe Pakistan 2026?

Misbah Arshad, crowned on 20 August 2026. She is the fourth Miss Universe Pakistan.

Who did she succeed?

Roma Riaz, the 2025 titleholder, a British Pakistani from Lahore.

Where was the final held?

In the Philippines. The 2025 final was held in Raa Atoll in the Maldives.

When is Miss Universe 2026?

In November, in Puerto Rico. It is the 75th edition.

What is Pakistan's best result at Miss Universe?

Erica Robin reached the top 20 in 2023, the first year Pakistan took part. No entrant has placed since.

Has Misbah Arshad competed internationally before?

Dawn reports she represented Pakistan at Miss International 2023 in Japan and Miss Supranational 2024 in Poland. Other outlets report national titles in 2023.

Why are there no photographs on this page?

Because the coronation photographs belong to agencies, and crediting an image is not the same as being licensed to publish it.