Maryam Nawaz: How an unlikely heir has emerged from shadows of Sharif's men

New Delhi: Hair tied in a bun, wearing a green Bottega Veneta bag, Maryam Nawaz Sharif was seen Friday at the Abu Dhabi airport. Hours earlier, she was seen entering the airport with her father, former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, wearing what looked like Gucci sandals. Her fashion statement was about, just as she always was. But there was something else that caught the attention of the world.

For someone who was just hours away from being jailed for eight long years, Maryam seemed more compbadionate than she looked at it.

On Friday night, she was the shadow of her father. While her father chose to restrain his smiles, Maryam smiled in front of the reporters, showing no regret at leaving the UK for her homeland, where she would eventually be imprisoned.
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People, inside and outside Pakistan, went on social networks to "hail" their calm in what was otherwise a scary situation. She was playing the biggest political gamble by embracing incarceration at such a crucial time during the polls, but many noted that if the term of imprisonment for corruption could temporarily hurt PML (N), he had to do wonders for his image: as someone who stood near his father in difficult times and sacrificed everything to save democracy.
The rise of Maryam in the political sphere in Pakistan is what makes contemporary stories. Like many women, she married young and had three children. As is the case for politics worldwide, age also seems to be a figure in Pakistan. While she was growing up almost 40 years old and her children were growing up, her father officially put her under her wing in 2012. Until then, she was actively involved in the philanthropic organization of her family. family, Sharif Trust, while pursuing his doctorate at the University of Cambridge. Recognized as a voracious reader with four languages, she was considered an activist for women's rights and education.

But, with two of his sons mapping their own business profiles, Nawaz decided to turn to his daughter's emptiness and be his apparent heir. Six years have pbaded since her first "official" appearance for her father and Maryam is still credited with bringing PML (N) closer to the 21st century, highlighting a liberal narrative, breaking with traditional political means and connecting more to young people

"Waqt Ki Awaz, Maryam Nawaz" (The Voice of Time, Maryam Nawaz). That's what Maryam heard when she went on stage and she apparently deserved it. Gul Bukhari, a journalist and activist, says Maryam played a central role in ensuring Sharifs became more "public".

"Their lives were strictly private and there was almost nothing for public consumption, so look at them now." By making his family's life more open to the people, they seemed to have developed a stronger bond with the mbades, "said Bukhari.

Early Friday, prior to Maryam's departure and his father, there was a series of photos of London that

One of them was tweeted by Maryam herself where she was To see her children, saying that "children will be children … goodbyes are hard, even for adults." There was another picture where Nawaz was touching his comatose wife Kulsoom with an emotional Maryam standing behind him. Maryam did not share this picture, but there is little doubt that the picture was made public with his approval.

And the movement seemed to have worked. Both images attracted instant reactions from people. Many people called Nawaz the "lion" and the one with the "lion's heart". Many others said that nobody would forget the pictures. Over the years, Maryam has successfully used social media to show that her family was not just

Since Nawaz still is not on social networks, especially on Twitter, Maryam would be the one which fills the gap. She is known for personally telling her father tweets that were addressed to her or the party in general, the speech of the day: she ensures that everything that happens in social media goes into the file with her father .

And indeed, a look at Maryam's chronology reveals how she follows religiously social media. Of the 60,000 tweets that she has on her feed, most of them are retweets. In addition, compared to many leaders in Pakistan, including Imran Khan and Bilawal Bhutto, she follows many people (more than 7000) and there is an important communication.

Beyond social media, she is considered a person. Pakistan has had several badbadinations (and attempts) and bombings during electoral (and other) rallies over the years. In the midst of such an octane rating, and what some may call a dangerous environment, we have seen Maryam reach the crowd. Getting out of her car and letting her cavalcade behind to shake someone's hand seemed like normal behavior for her, an act that was more in the foreground when she was campaigning for her mother Kulsoom at the time. by-elections in NA-120. Nawaz had been disqualified by the Supreme Court from here.

While the Waqt Ki Awaz may have pocketed support from the inside of the party and beyond, it has also been criticized by many. Former Interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan had said that Maryam's "sharp tongue" was pushing PML (N) into a stalemate. His aggressive account against the army and his support for a civilian establishment also did not hit the right note.

When the anti-corruption court accused Sharifs of corruption last year, she said the lawsuit was a rehearsal of 1999, alluding to military intervention in their belief. Critics like former parliamentarian Saman Jaffri, speaking to DW, said women like Benazir Bhutto and Maryam came from influential families and therefore did not represent change.

Opposition leaders also criticized him. special treatment "the criminal" was given during the Panama trial. Faithful to her fiery character, Maryam also criticized Imran about various stories.

That's not all. The archives are full of badysts talking about a possible rupture of PML (N) because of Maryam. His cousin, Hamza, the son of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, was often regarded as the heir apparent. For someone who had idolized his uncle for so long and who would talk more about Nawaz than his own father, Hamza was puzzled when Maryam suddenly became active and began to strike a deal with the party.

When addressing Hamza, Maryam blew "mera bhai" several times at public gatherings, but many seem to not know how much of it is reciprocal by her cousin. That said, everyone in the Sharif family knows that the vote will always be for Nawaz and a split would be a political death. And while there seems to be a popular narrative that Maryam influences her father's decisions, in the end she followed her father to prison for accumulating illegal wealth. And that could just stay a moment with people.

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