 "Maryam Nawaz")
Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of ousted Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif, deserves a hand even if the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz's (PMLN's) performance in the recent by-election has been below par.
Although the registered voters have increased, the number of those who voted for the PMLN in 2013, when Nawaz Sharif contested the election as a candidate from the National Assembly 120 (NA120), has gone down. The breach has been filled, seemingly, by PMLN voters either shifting to Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), or, more worryingly, to the Islamist parties.
But the election has signalled two facts to PMLN supporters: One, in the days to come, it is Maryam to whom they will have to look; and the differences between the two Sharif brothers, Nawaz and Shahbaz, are a political reality. It was to Maryam Nawaz’s daughter’s ‘mehandi’ ceremony that Prime Minister Narendra Modi went over Christmas 2015. Maryam is currently enrolled for a PhD degree in political science at University of Cambridge. The topic of her thesis is “Post-9/11 Radicalisation of Pakistan”.
She made her political debut in Pakistan in November 2011, addressing a convention of women from the party. She strongly defended her family during the siege of Islamabad by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan. She has handled the social media on behalf of the party, in which, incidentally, she has no formal role but is still seen sitting in all important party meetings, even in the eventful days leading to the Supreme Court trial of corruption charges against Nawaz Sharif (in which she was also a party). She was put in charge of an important credit programme for the youth in Pakistan until the court told her that she had no qualifications to head the programme and had to step down.
Nevertheless, Pakistan’s chatterati is clear: Maryam is political heir to Nawaz Sharif.
There is another claimant: Hamza, Maryam's cousin. The eldest son of Nawaz Sharif's brother Shahbaz Sharif, Hamza was the only one left in Pakistan when his uncle Nawaz and father Shahbaz were in exile in Saudi Arabia during the army rule of Pervez Musharraf. Known as Punjab's poultry king because of his investments in the business, Hamza Sharif is thought to have a good grip on the affairs of the PMLN and a first-mover advantage. On the other hand, Nawaz Sharif's wife, Kulsoom, herself not really a force in politics, is presumably pushing her daughter towards a bigger role because she wants the inheritance to stay in her own immediate family. The NA 120 election was part of this move.
The general elections will be held in Pakistan next year. In the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Bilawal Bhutto and his sister Aseefa are already playing public roles. In the PMLN, earlier it was Hamza who was thought to be the natural heir (Nawaz Sharif's two sons Hassan and Hussain are reportedly not interested in politics, opting to run the family business). But grubbiness and allegations of corruption, combined with a messy personal life, caused a setback. The breach between the brothers and their respective families seemed almost institutional when it was SA Abbasi whom Sharif named to represent the party as prime minister and not his brother when the Supreme Court judgment disqualified him. Obviously the strength of the family in Punjab, where Shahbaz is chief minister, is the crucial political factor here. Neither Shahbaz nor Hamza played any role whatsoever in the NA120 byelection.
It is possible that the rivalry between the cousins, both in their forties, might come to nothing. The party will probably take Hamza more seriously. But at this point, the balance of advantage — such as it is — is in Maryam Nawaz's favour. This has its own implications for the government that will be formed in the future in Pakistan.
