While terming reports about political infighting in the Sharif family as overblown Maryam Nawaz has indicated that she envisages a “certain role” for herself in the future.
The daughter of the embattled prime minister Nawaz Sharif told The New York Times, the Sharif family remains united contrary to reports.
“It’s not a divided house… the Sharif family takes a lot of pride in family values and the family ethos,” she said.
The Sharifs, who draw their political strength from the largest Punjab province have been at odds with several national institutions in Pakistan’s power politics. Nawaz Sharif has been found guilty in corruption case stemming from the Panama Papers. His brother Shahbaz
Sharif has been a longtime Punjab chief ministers and his son is also seen as an heir apparent in Pakistan’s politics of heredity.
Asked about her uncle Shehbaz Sharif, the Punjab chief minister, possibly becoming prime minister, Maryam said:
“He’s the most competent person. He’s my hero. I love him to death.”
Maryam avoided responded directly to a question about her ambitions to become prime minister.
“People around me tell me I was meant for a certain role.”
“I don’t know what tomorrow holds,” she added. “But I think I owe it to the people. I need to reach out to them.”
Maryam saw no evidence in the court cases that could send her to prison.
“The cases are politically motivated and nothing more than blatant political victimization and pressure tactics,” she told the Times. “People remain undeterred, and support for the Pakistan Muslim League has further galvanized.”
She also recounted how Pakistani soldiers physically dragged her father from office in a coup in October 1999, when Gen Pervez Musharraf imposed a military rule, ensuing years of exile in Saudi Arabia for her and more than 20 other members of her family.
“Prisons, disqualifications, sham trials, house arrests, court cases — been there, done that,” Maryam said.
“I am undeterred, unperturbed, fighting,” she added, constantly clicking on a diamond-and-sapphire prayer counter.
Maryam also said that for a long time she “never saw herself in politics,” in a family in which political leadership had long been a man’s game.
The Sharifs have been embroiled in a spate of controversies from money laundering corruption cases to remarks against minorities but recently, voters elected Nawaz Sharif’s wife Kulsoom Nawaz from their stronghold constituency in Lahore, indicating the former prime minister still enjoys a measure of popularity among Punjab voters.
Pakistan will have general elections in 2018, marking completion of the second back-to-back terms of democratically elected civilian governments. Imran Khan’s PTI and former president Asif Ali Zardari’s PPP are the other two major political forces in the country.
