Had to work ‘quite hard’ to 'make space' as a woman: Maryam Nawaz

Lahore: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, who scripted history when she became the first woman to occupy the post in any province of Pakistan, on Friday said she had to work "quite hard" for more than a decade to “make space” for herself in the ruling PML-N, a party founded by her father Nawaz Sharif.

Speaking at an event to mark Women’s Day in Lahore, she said, “As this has been a very male-dominated party historically, I also had to work quite hard for 12-13 years to make space for myself.” “But if I am standing here, it is a message for every woman, mother and daughter, that if you want to do something, then being a woman cannot be an obstacle in fulfilling your dreams and mission,” she was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper.

Maryam, 50, who is considered a political heir to Nawaz Sharif, took oath as the chief minister of Punjab on February 26 reportedly as part of a deal worked out with the blessings of the powerful Pakistan Army when the three-time former premier’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) failed to muster enough seats to form a government on its own.

The establishment reportedly offered the 74-year-old PML-N supremo two choices – nominate his younger brother Shehbaz Sharif, a former prime minister himself, to lead the next coalition government in Islamabad and Maryam can be the chief minister of Punjab, the politically crucial and the most populous province of the country.

Punjab province is the home bastion of the Sharifs, an influential political family of Pakistan that has had two prime ministers ruling over Pakistan for four terms, albeit all incomplete, between them over the last three decades.

Maryam was born on October 28, 1973, in Lahore when her father, then leading a steel conglomerate, was not active in politics.

After graduating from the Convent of Jesus and Mary school, she pursued her undergraduate studies at Punjab University and also earned a master's degree from the same institution.

She was married off at the age of 19 to Capt Mohammad Safdar who later quit the army and joined civil service through a quota in the government of his father-in-law. He later quit that job too and started a business.

Maryam was leading a life away from the political glitz and raised her three children like any other elite family would do before she stepped into active politics in 2011 while her two brothers — Hussain and Hasan, British nationals – chose to prefer to run the family business in London.

She, however, rose to fame when she launched a popular anti-military tirade for ousting her father from power in 2017.