Maryam Nawaz Sharif (born 28 October 1973) is a Pakistani politician who has served as the 19th chief minister of Punjab since 26 February 2024. She is the first woman to hold the position of chief minister in Pakistan, assuming office following the 2024 elections, which were disputed amid widespread allegations of electoral rigging.
Born to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Lahore, Punjab in 1973, she began her political career in 2012 when she took charge of the PMLN's election campaign for the 2013 Pakistani general election. Following the election, she was appointed the chairperson of the Prime Minister's Youth Programme in 2013. She resigned from the position in 2014 after her appointment was challenged in the Lahore High Court, who ordered to remove her, amid allegations of nepotism and dubious academic credentials. After her election to the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab in the controversial 2024 Pakistani general election, Maryam was appointed chief minister of Punjab.
During her tenure, cases of police brutality and extrajudicial encounters increased significantly. Despite her claims of having a zero-tolerance policy toward harassment of women, reported cases of rape and violence against women also reached their highest levels. However, she has been praised for creating job opportunities and launching several development programs. At the same time, she has faced criticism for using public funds to purchase an 11-billion rupee private plane for personal use, as well as for maintaining an extravagant lifestyle, elaborate protocols, and self-promotion.
Early life and education Maryam Nawaz Sharif was born on 28 October 1973 in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, to politicians Nawaz Sharif and Kulsoom Butt. She is of Punjabi Kashmiri descent and is the eldest of four siblings, two brothers, Hassan and Hussain, and a sister Asma. She is the granddaughter of industrialist Muhammad Sharif, niece of the current Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, and the cousin of former Chief Minister of Punjab, Hamza Shahbaz.
She received her early education at the Convent of Jesus and Mary, Lahore, completing pre-nursery through the 10th grade. She then completed her FSc at Lahore College for Women, graduating in 1991.
After being rejected by Kinnaird College due to poor academic standing, her father, Nawaz Sharif, then-chief minister of Punjab, intervened by suspending the principal. However, a strike organised by college students and staff led to the principal's reinstatement. Maryam subsequently enrolled in King Edward Medical College (KEMC) in the late 1980s through transfer of certificate with the intention of becoming a medical doctor.
Maryam later enrolled at Fatima Jinnah Medical College in Lahore, but did not complete her education, leaving her studies in 1992 after her marriage to captain Muhammad Safdar Awan. She married Muhammaed Safdar Awan, her father's military secretary, at the age of 19. Maryam has three children with Safdar: a son, Junaid, and two daughters, Mehr-un-Nisa and Mahnoor.
Maryam claimed to have completed her undergraduate studies at the University of the Punjab, from where she stated she had a master's degree in English literature. In 2012, it was reported that she was doing her PhD degree on post-9/11 radicalization in Pakistan and was described as being fond of postcolonial writers such as Chinua Achebe and Faiz Ahmad Faiz.
In 2014, the Lahore High Court questioned the validity of her master's degree in English literature and her PhD in political science. The deputy attorney general, who was representing Maryam, presented her academic credentials but withdrew them when asked whether her PhD was earned or honorary. He also said that the details presented before the court were from Wikipedia. By 2018, when submitting records to the Election Commission of Pakistan, Maryam declared only her master's degree in English literature.
Political career Early political career Maryam was detained for the first time on 12 October 1999, following the 1999 Pakistani coup d'état led by Gen Pervez Musharraf, which ousted her father, then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Arrested by female members of the Pakistan Army Corps of Military Police, she along with her mother Kulsoom Nawaz and other female members of the Sharif family was promptly transferred to her residence where they were placed under house arrest, in contrast to her father, who was taken to Adiala Jail. In November 1999, she, along with other female members of the Sharif family, was granted release on "humanitarian grounds" at the request of a Arab ruler. Maryam's first notable appearance was in a BBC interview, where she recounted her father's imprisonment by General Pervez Musharraf and appealed for public support for her father Nawaz. She and her mother gained prominence during this period. After being released from a four-month house arrest, she found herself shuttling between prisons, as she listened to the charges of corruption, terrorism, and tax evasion against her father. Later, she, along with 22 members of the Sharif family, was sent into exile in Saudi Arabia. During her long exile, she prioritized her role in raising her children during and also became fluent in Arabic.
Prior to entering politics, she remained involved in the family's philanthropic organisation and served as the chairperson of Sharif Trust, Sharif Medical City, and Sharif Education Institutes since 1997. All of these were established by her grandfather, Muhammad Sharif.
In November 2011, Nawaz Sharif granted her permission to enter politics after she expressed her intention to do so. In 2012, Maryam collaborated with PML-N leaders to prepare the Punjab Women Empowerment Package, initiated by her uncle Shehbaz Sharif, then chief minister of Punjab, in addition to playing a role in the implementation of the women-only Pink Bus scheme in Punjab during the same year. Reportedly, Maryam also contributed to various initiatives aimed at women's welfare in Punjab. During her political debut, she began visiting educational institutes to give speeches on education and women's rights.
She largely remained out of the spotlight till 2013 when she was put in charge of Nawaz Sharif's successful election campaign during the 2013 Pakistani general election where she reportedly played a prominent role. She was credited for her efforts in galvanizing public sentiment through social media prior to and after the 2013 election. At one point during the 2013 election campaign, she was considered a potential candidate for the chief minister of Punjab, although she ultimately did not run in the general election. Maryam was positioned by the PML-N as a counterbalance to the youth following enjoyed by PTI's Imran Khan. At one point, she was seen distributing laptops to students on behalf of the Punjab government, despite holding no public office either in the Punjab or in the federal government.
2013–2014: Chairperson of the Prime Minister's Youth Programme After her father assumed power and became prime minister, she was appointed the chairperson of the Prime Minister's Youth Programme on 22 November 2013. However, her appointment was called into question by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) which termed the appointment a case of nepotism and moved the Lahore High Court in October 2014. The PTI also accused her of misusing government funds for her own image-building. Questions were also raised regarding her academic credentials, including her degrees in M.A. (English Literature) and Ph.D. in Political Science. The Deputy Attorney General, representing Maryam, presented information from her Wikipedia biography page to prove her academic credentials. On 12 November 2014, the Lahore High Court ordered the federal government to remove her. The next day, Maryam resigned from the chairpersonship.
Initial controversies and challenges Afterwards, Maryam established a Strategic Media Communications Cell within the Prime Minister's Office and also assumed control of PML-N social media to address the challenges posed by PTI. In 2016, she garnered significant media attention when the then Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, underwent open-heart surgery in the UK. Rather than accompanying her father to the UK, Maryam remained in Prime Minister House and assumed responsibility for media management. She provided updates on her father's medical condition to the press through her Twitter account. However her permanent residence in the Prime Minister House as a "dependent" of the prime minister also raised questions. Additionally, her alleged involvement with the strategic media cell had been a subject of media discourse. During Nawaz Sharif's absence from the country, she was proved to be an effective leader of PML-N.
In 2017, she faced accusations of supporting blasphemous content after a group of dissenting bloggers was abducted by Pakistani intelligence agencies. After release of bloggers, they disclosed that they had resisted giving a forced confession. The confession they were pressured to make implicated Maryam in allegedly operating a blasphemous Facebook page called 'Bhensa' under the direction of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW).
She became involved in electoral politics in 2017 following her father Nawaz Sharif's disqualification from holding the prime ministership and his conviction by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in connection with the Panama Papers case. Maryam campaigned for her mother, Kulsoom Nawaz, during the by-elections in Constituency NA-120 (Lahore-III). Although her mother won the seat, the victory margin notably decreased. There was significant discussion surrounding Maryam's role in the election campaign. Many observers interpreted her involvement in the campaign as a significant step in her formal entry into the succession and party leadership race. After Nawaz Sharif's removal, Maryam was regarded as the party's anti-establishment figurehead.
Trial and conviction Reportedly, the Judiciary of Pakistan also played a crucial role in attempting to sideline her from Pakistani politics and a systematic propaganda campaign was orchestrated by an officer of the ISI and over ten thousand paid interns of an organization tasked with conducting a social media campaign against Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz Sharif. In June 2018, when she was allocated a PML-N ticket to contest the 2018 general election from Constituency NA-127 (Lahore-V) and Constituency PP-173 Lahore-XXX, she was sentenced to 7 years in jail on corruption charges in the Avenfield case filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), while her father Nawaz Sharif received a 10-year sentence in a 9-month-long trial. She received a 7-year sentence for abetment after being found "instrumental in concealing her father's properties," which also included 1 year for non-cooperation with the NAB. According to the verdict, she "aided, assisted, abetted, attempted and acted in conspiracy with her father".
As a result, she was disqualified from politics for 10 years following which PML-N nominated Ali Pervaiz Malik and Irfan Shafi Khokhar to contest the 2018 elections in Constituencies NA-127 (Lahore-V) and PP-173 Lahore-XXX, respectively. On 13 July 2018, Maryam along with her father Nawaz were arrested by NAB officials upon their arrival in Pakistan and subsequently transferred to Adiala Jail. After her mother Kulsoom Nawaz died in London on 11 September 2018 after suffering cardiac arrest, both Maryam and Nawaz were granted timed-parole in order to attend her funeral.