By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: Maryam Nawaz Sharif, the daughter of three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, was elected on Monday as the first woman chief minister of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous and politically influential province.
Maryam, 50, who is also the senior vice president of her father’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, secured 220 votes out of 371 in the provincial assembly, while her rival, Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan, from the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), a coalition partner of former premier Imran Khan’s party, received none.
The SIC lawmakers boycotted the voting in protest after their candidate was not allowed to speak by the speaker.
Maryam, who had faced corruption charges and jail time in the past, vowed to serve all the people of Punjab, regardless of their political affiliation, and to focus on improving their living standards, health facilities and public services.
“I have faced numerous hardships, including incarceration in a death cell, but I am grateful to my opponents for providing me with rigorous training to become what I am today,” Maryam said in her maiden speech as the chief minister. “There will be no vendetta against anyone.”
Punjab, home to more than 127 million people, over half of Pakistan’s population, is the power base of the PML-N, which won 129 seats in the provincial assembly in the Feb. 8 national election.
The province is also the hub of the country’s military, industrial and agricultural sectors, and historically, the party that dominates Punjab usually forms the government at the center.
Maryam’s father, Sharif, who was ousted by the Supreme Court in 2017 over corruption allegations, has nominated her as his political heir apparent and has accused Khan, who is currently in jail, of the military and judiciary being behind a conspiracy to oust him and his party from power.
The new Punjab chief also pledged to eradicate corruption and ensure good governance in the province, which has been a stronghold of the PML-N for decades but was now dented by Khan’s PTI party. “I have zero tolerance for corruption,” she said. “I will implement an effective governance model that ensures the timely completion of projects and delivery of exemplary services to the masses.”
Maryam’s election as chief minister came on the same day when the provincial assembly in Sindh, Pakistan’s second-largest province, re-elected Murad Ali Shah, a member of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), as its chief executive.
Shah, who has been the chief minister of Sindh since 2016, won 112 votes in the 168-member House, defeating Ali Khurshidi of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), who got 36 votes.
The PPP, led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of former president Asif Ali Zardari and slain prime minister Benazir Bhutto, emerged as the largest party in Sindh with 84 seats in the Feb. 8 election.
The Sindh assembly held its inaugural session on Saturday amid protests by opposition parties over alleged rigging of the election. On Sunday, the PPP elected Owais Qadir Shah and Anthony Naveed as speaker and deputy speaker of the House.
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