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This is an archive article published on February 26, 2024
Maryam Nawaz takes oath as first woman CM of Pakistan’s Punjab province
PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz said it was not easy to take over the legacy of her father and three-time Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif and her uncle Shehbaz Sharif who is set to be the country’s next Prime Minister.
Maryam Nawaz Sharif addresses the assembly with a picture of her mother by her side. (Screengrab/Express photo)
Maryam Nawaz, 50, the daughter of three-time Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, became the first woman Chief Minister of West Punjab in Pakistan on Monday.
It is the “victory of every woman, every mother, every sister,” Maryam, the senior vice-president of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), said in her maiden speech in Punjab’s Provincial Assembly after winning the chief minister election and taking oath on Monday. A photograph of her late mother Kulsoom was seen by her side as she spoke.
“Today, this victory is not just mine. It is the victory of every woman, every mother…and I hope I am not the last. This victory for women should continue even after me,” she added.
The PML-N leader said she had big shoes to fill. “My competition is not with anyone else but with greats from my own party – Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif (her uncle who is set to be Pakistan’s Prime Minister). Since the day I was nominated as Punjab’s CM, Nawaz Sharif saab has been holding discussions with me on our plan for Punjab for the next five years. It’s not easy to take over their legacy. But I have decided that I have to perform over and above the expectations,” she said.
Maryam said that from today, she would not just be the representative of a particular political party but the Wazir-e-Ala (head of the executive of a province in Pakistan) of the entire Punjab. “I am also the Wazir-e-Ala of those people who did not vote for me. My doors, my hearts, my office will always be open for the Opposition and everyone else 24×7,” said Maryam, adding that she would have been happy had Opposition members also attended the Assembly session.
The PML-N won 137 seats in the Punjab Assembly while independents backed by former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won 113 seats in the recently held elections.
On the Indian side of the border, Congress’s Rajinder Kaur Bhattal has been the only woman chief minister of Punjab.
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Both the provincial and National Assembly polls in Pakistan were held amid allegations of massive rigging this year as former Prime Minister Imran Khan continues to be in jail.
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