Maryam Nawaz: A Rising Force In Pakistani Politics, Becomes First Female Chief Minister

In a significant milestone for advancing women's empowerment in Pakistan's largely male-dominant political landscape, the prestigious office of the Punjab chief minister was clinched by Maryam Nawaz, senior vice president of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and heir-apparent to party supremo Nawaz Sharif, breaking through gender and non-gender barriers.

Maryam's accomplishment is marked as a path-breaking and historical moment, as she becomes the first woman in Pakistan's history spanning more than 75 years to rise to the highest office of the country's most populated province, as reported Geo News.

Maryam Nawaz: First Female CM

The coveted seat will now be assumed by Maryam after the elections were won, with the backing of 220 members of the provincial assembly. Interestingly, her election to CM was marred by a boycott by the Opposition comprising the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC).

Having become the first-ever female chief minister in Pakistan's history, Maryam secured victory in the elections after receiving the backing of 220 MPAs in the provincial assembly. Playing significant roles as senior vice president and chief organizer of the party, the 50-year-old holds sway in setting the PML-N's future direction, as reported by Geo News.

Who is Maryam Nawaz, the emerging power within PML-N and Pakistan?

Maryam Nawaz was born in 1973 in Pakistan's Lahore city. She is the daughter of former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. In parliamentary politics, Maryam made her debut last Friday (February 23) when she was sworn in as a member of the Punjab Assembly, a legislature where her father and uncle, Shehbaz Sharif, had previously served as chief ministers.

Before her entry into politics, the newly-elected chief minister had been at the helm of her family's philanthropic endeavours. She had chaired the Sharif Trust, Sharif Medical City, and Sharif Education Institutes. In 2012, Maryam officially entered the political arena, assuming the responsibility of overseeing the PML-N's election campaign leading up to the 2013 general elections.

The party emerged victorious, and her father became the country's prime minister for the third time - but his five-year term was cut short when he was disqualified in 2017. Following the elections, the Prime Minister's Youth Programme came under her leadership as its chairperson. However, her tenure was short-lived, and Maryam resigned from that position in 2014.

This decision came amidst mounting criticism from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan, who raised questions about nepotism, and a local party leader challenged the validity of her university degree in the Lahore High Court. The year 2017 marked a turning point in Maryam's political career, as per Pakistan media outlet.

Following her father's disqualification and subsequent conviction on corruption charges tied to the Panama Papers, she stepped into the public arena. During the by-elections for her father's vacated Lahore seat (NA-120), she actively campaigned for her mother, Kulsoom Nawaz.

However, like every other politician rising through the ranks, Maryam, in 2018, faced legal challenges that cast a shadow on her political career. Days before the 2018 general polls in July, an accountability court handed her a seven-year sentence in the Avenfield corruption reference case - regarding the purchase of properties in London. Nawaz also received 10 years in jail in the same case.

This conviction was a major setback for Nawaz's daughter as it rendered her ineligible to run in the nationwide elections. She was later arrested in several other cases; however, after coming out on bail in 2019, she actively participated in politics as her father had begun his four-year self-imposed exile in London, where he had gone to receive "medical treatment".

This was the same year the party appointed her vice president. In September 2022, the Islamabad High Court overturned her as well as her husband Captain (retd) Muhammad Safdar's corruption conviction, allowing her to contest the 2024 general elections.

Fast forward to January 2023, the PML-N appointed her as the senior vice president as well as the chief organizer - this did not seemingly sit well with veteran leaders, especially Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, one of the party's stalwarts, who openly disputed her ascendance to the position, reported Geo News.

Maryam, who is among the senior leaders of the PML-N, holds Punjab's top office, a post that will be responsible for more than half of Pakistan's population. Now the mighty onus of filling her father and uncle's big shoes in terms of "good governance" lies with her amid calls that she lacks Nawaz's administrative experience and Shehbaz's blend of efficiency and charisma.

Maryam's leadership, now under the microscope, will be on trial until she outperforms her predecessors. The prosperity of Punjab and her party's ability to regain its lost electoral glory in its own backyard is tied to her political shrewdness and administrative acumen.

Her governance will have impacts reaching far beyond the provincial demarcations, playing a phenomenal role in chalking out the party's political trajectory down the line.