Maryam Nawaz

Maryam Nawaz is a Pakistani politician who became the first female Chief Minister of Punjab in February 2024. Born on 28 March 1973 in Lahore, she is the daughter of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and has been groomed as the political heir of the Sharif family.

Political career

Maryam entered active politics in 2013, leading the PML-N's youth and women's wings during her father's election campaign. She rose to national prominence during the 2017 Panama Papers case, in which she and her father were implicated; she was later convicted and imprisoned in 2018, though the verdicts were subsequently suspended or overturned. Her imprisonment turned her into one of the PML-N's most prominent figures, and she became the public face of the party's campaigns while her father was abroad.

In 2024, after the PML-N returned to government, Maryam was elected to the Punjab Assembly and sworn in as Chief Minister — the first woman in Pakistan's history to hold the office. Her administration has focused on health initiatives, education and the "Maryam Nawaz Health Card", building on the Sharif family's governance brand in Punjab.

Legacy

Maryam Nawaz represents a generational shift in Pakistani politics — the daughter of a political dynasty assuming executive power in her own right. She is widely seen as the likely future leader of the PML-N, and her tenure as Punjab's chief minister is being watched as the next chapter of the Sharif dynasty's four-decade dominance of the province.