LAHORE: Senior PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, on Monday took oath as the first-ever woman chief minister of Pakistan’s most populous and politically crucial Punjab province, as also of any province in the country, a development described as a “giant leap” by her party.
Maryam, the 50-year-old senior vice-president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, took oath as the Punjab chief minister at a ceremony at the Governor House in the presence of her father Nawaz Sharif and uncle Shehbaz Sharif.
She earlier won the chief ministerial elections amidst a walkout by lawmakers of former prime minister Imran Khan’s party-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC).
In her maiden speech at the provincial legislature earlier, Maryam thanked God, her father, Nawaz Sharif, uncle Shehbaz Sharif and the lawmakers who voted for her.
Maryam said she was happy to sit in the seat where her father used to sit. “My father trained me on how to run the office,” Maryam, considered the political heir of Nawaz Sharif, said. “Today, every woman of the province is proud to see a woman chief minister,” she said and hoped that the tradition of female leadership would continue.
The PML-N leader said she had seen hard times like imprisonment but was thankful to her opponents for making her strong. “But I will not seek revenge,” she said, indirectly referring to former Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and former chief justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar.