Pakistan: Maryam Nawaz becomes first woman CM of West Punjab

In Pakistan, Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of three-time Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, became the first woman Chief Minister of West Punjab on Monday. Speaking after taking the oath, Maryam said,  it is the victory of every woman, every mother and every sister. She added that it is not easy to take over the legacy of her father but she will try to perform over and above the expectations. Ms. Maryam said that from today, she would not just be the representative of a particular political party but a Wazir-e-Ala of the entire Punjab. In the recently concluded elections,  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.
The 50-year-old senior vice president of PML-N, won the chief ministerial elections amidst a walkout by lawmakers of former prime minister Imran Khan's party-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC).Maryam Nawaz defeated Rana Aftab of the PTI-backed SIC to win the chief ministerial elections for the politically crucial Punjab province, home to 120 million people.In 2017, Maryam was disqualified from holding public office by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in view of the Panama Papers scandal. The court ruled that Maryam was involved in money laundering. However, the PML-N denied the charges against her and maintained that she was innocent. During the 2024 general election in Pakistan, Maryam Nawaz was elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan (NA) and the Provincial Assembly of Punjab.