‘Carve her own legacy’: Challenges ahead as Maryam Nawaz Sharif takes over reign of key Pakistani province 

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Updated 27 February 2024
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‘Carve her own legacy’: Challenges ahead as Maryam Nawaz Sharif takes over reign of key Pakistani province 

  • Maryam is fourth member of Sharif clan to become CM of Punjab, Pakistan’s politically most important province
  • 2024 general election was first time Maryam contested polls, has not held a prominent elected office before

ISLAMABAD: As Maryam Nawaz Sharif, daughter of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, made history this week by becoming the country’s first woman chief minister, political rivals decried nepotism while analysts said she had “her work cut out for her” governing the country’s most politically important province of Punjab. 

Maryam secured 220 votes in Monday’s election for the chief minister of Punjab, which accounts for 53 percent of Pakistan’s 241 million population and contributes 60 percent of its $350 billion GDP. Her opponent Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan could not secure a single vote as the opposition Sunni Ittehad Council party backed by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan boycotted the proceedings, saying the Feb. 8 general election was rigged. 

Elections earlier this month were the first time Maryam contested polls, representing her father’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). This is also the first time she will hold an elected public office, and that too in Punjab, the heartland of Pakistan military, political and industrial elite, a difficult terrain to manage even for the most experienced politicians. 

But Punjab is also the home province of the Sharif family, and Maryam is expected to have guidance from veterans in her family, not least her father, a three time former prime minister, and her uncle Shehbaz Sharif who has been Punjab CM multiple times in the past and is set to become prime minister for a second time this week. Her cousin Hamza Shehbaz, the younger Sharif’s son, has also served as CM of the province. 

Aftab, her opponent, said Maryam’s appointment was “yet another case of nepotism as her family is known for picking relatives and friends to top positions whenever it comes into power.”

But Maryam thanked God during the appointment ceremony and promised she would equally serve those who voted for her and those who didn’t. 

“The doors of my heart and office will remain open for the opposition as well,” she said.

Several commentators welcomed the appointment of a woman as CM, a significant milestone over seven decades after Pakistan’s creation. 

“We have the first woman chief minister of Punjab, which in itself is an achievement for someone who comes from a conservative family background and a male-dominated and traditional political party,” commentator Mehmal Sarfraz told Arab News. 

“There’s no doubt that being Nawaz Sharif’s daughter helped her but it can only help her so much. Now she has to prove her leadership skills, and carve out her own legacy.”

POLITICAL CAREER

Prior to entering politics, Maryam was involved with the Sharif family’s philanthropic organizations and served as the chairperson of the Sharif Trust, Sharif Medical City, and Sharif Education Institutes. She formally joined politics in 2012 when she was put in charge of the PML-N’s election campaign ahead of 2013 general elections, which the party won, propelling her father to the prime minister’s office for the third time.

After the elections, she was appointed the Chairperson of the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme, a position from which she resigned in 2014 after her appointment was criticized by political rival Imran Khan over nepotism and her university degree was challenged in the Lahore High Court.

She became more politically active in 2017 after her father was disqualified from the PM’s office and convicted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in relation to corruption revelations in the Panama Papers. She campaigned for her mother, Kulsoom Nawaz, during by-elections for Sharif’s vacant seat in the NA-120 constituency in Lahore.

Maryam was herself convicted by an anti-graft court in 2018 and got seven years in jail in a corruption abetment case involving the purchase of high-end apartments in London. Her father was also sentenced to 10 years in prison in the case for not being able to disclose a known source of income for buying the properties. She was also disqualified from contesting in 2018 elections as convicted felons cannot run for office under Pakistani law.

Maryam was acquitted in the case in September 2022, months after Imran Khan was ousted from the PM’s office in a parliamentary vote of no confidence and her uncle Shehbaz Sharif became premier.

Maryam became increasingly involved in politics during her father’s four-year self-imposed exile in the United Kingdom and in 2019 was appointed vice president of the PML-N, leading significant anti-government rallies throughout the country and fiercely denouncing then-PM Khan, his PTI party and the military and judiciary for colluding to oust her father from the PM’s office.

On 3 January 2023, Maryam was appointed senior vice president of the PML-N, making her one of the party’s most senior leaders. She ran for two seats in the Feb. 8 general elections, for the National Assembly seat from NA-119 Lahore-III and for a seat of the Provincial Assembly of Punjab from PP-159 Lahore-XV. She won both seats and was nominated by her party as the candidate for Punjab CM.

“She has been through the grind and now coming to governance I think that she has come in prepared, which is evident from her speech,” journalist and talk show host Munizae Jahangir said. 

“She has already had her meetings with the bureaucrats and she has a work plan, a blueprint of a work plan of what she is going to do in the five years which she unveiled today.”

Among notable promises in her speech, Maryam vowed to transform Punjab into an economic hub, work on youth upliftment, launch free ambulances and medicine delivery, ensure school transport and make women’s safety, education and employment a priority. She said women’s harassment was a “red line” and announced that a “special package” was in the works for the transgender community.

“Now whether she walks the talk is something that we will have to wait and see but by and large her speech has been extremely good,” Jahangir said. “She has touched upon all the issues that plague not just Punjab but also Pakistan and seems to have her work cut out for her.”

Sarfraz agreed.

“Her roadmap seems like an ambitious plan so let’s see how she moves forward with it but it was good to see for a change that there was talk of reconciliation and not revenge, which has become a norm in our politics,” the commentator said. 

“The best thing about her speech was that she made it a point to highlight that being a woman was a strength and not a weakness. She talked about her experience as a mother, daughter, working woman and how harassment is a red line for her. This needed to be said.”

Dismissing Maryam’s lack of parliamentary experience, Sarfraz said a lot of the criticism against the politician was gendered:

“She gets more hate because she is a woman who has an aggressive style of politics. We don’t talk much about this angle of how our sexist and misogynist society hates an ambitious, opinionated and strong woman.”

DYNASTIC POLITICS

Maryam’s appointment was largely expected following the Feb. 8 parliamentary elections in which her father’s PML-N emerged as the largest party in the National Assembly, or lower house of the parliament, and in the Punjab Assembly.

The PML-N, which was initially trailing candidates representing Khan’s supporters — the former cricket player turned politician was barred from running — emerged last Friday as the largest single winner in the election after receiving 24 additional seats — 20 from out of the 60 seats reserved for women, as well as four seats out of 10 reserved for minorities. Nine independent members have also joined the PML-N.

The party is now heading into a coalition with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), and Shehbaz Sharif, the younger brother of Nawaz, on a firm path to becoming the next prime minister, his second term in office. Khan’s party has rejected the election results, alleging widespread rigging. 

The Sharifs are one of the top two families that have dominated Pakistani politics for decades, the second being the Bhuttos of Sindh. 

“I have never thought that dynastic politics is a problem because I believe that whoever the voters want to vote for they should be allowed to, you can’t ban people just because they are somebody’s children or somebody’s father,” Jahangir said. 

“In this case it was very clear that she was a contender for the CM slot and I don’t think that she is that inexperienced … she had considerable experience in politics in opposition really and I think that opposition is when you really do have the tough time of doing politics in a place like Pakistan.”

But political analyst Dr. Huma Baqai said Maryam’s biggest challenge would be “credibility” and proving herself to the public.

“Political turmoil is not over in Pakistan. The fact that election results are not accepted on the ground by a huge section of the population will remain an issue [for Maryam]. There will be issues of credibility,” she said, describing the new CM’s roadmap as “the absolute pie in the sky promises of a person who does not have the experience.”

Dr. Hassan Askari, a longtime observer of Punjab politics, agreed that Maryam faced many challenges ahead. 

“She has presented a massive, a big-scale and very ambitious agenda,” the professor said. “That requires a lot of resources, virtually every aspect of administration has been covered. So, how do you mobilize resources for such an ambitious agenda?”

Jahangir, however, believed Maryam’s biggest challenge would be working with the all-powerful military, which has directly ruled Pakistan for almost half its history and is seen as the invisible guiding hand of politics even when not in power. 

In the run-up to elections too, widespread concerns were raised by independent analysts, activists and politicians of the military’s growing political power and its engineering of the pre-polling phase to keep Khan out of politics. The military denies it interferes in politics.

“I think the challenges for any politician in Pakistan is the military,” Jahangir said, “whether they will allow the politicians to run the province the way they want, whether they will be interfering in the running of the province. I think that is the real question.”


Pakistani industrialists eye Gulf nations for business as tax laws toughen at home — representative

Updated 8 sec ago
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Pakistani industrialists eye Gulf nations for business as tax laws toughen at home — representative

  • The development comes amid protests by the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the nation’s biggest trade body, over policing powers to tax collectors
  • KCCI President Jawed Bilwani says over 24,000 Pakistani businesses have already registered with the Dubai Chamber of Commerce in the last two and half years

KARACHI: More and more Pakistanis are planning to shift their businesses to the Gulf countries as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government seeks to give policing powers to tax collectors, a traders’ representative said on Thursday, describing the move as being “worse than law of the jungle.”

The government this month introduced a new legal provision in the form of Section 37AA of the Sales Tax Act, 1990 that allows officers of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to make arrests in case of a “tax fraud or any other offense warranting prosecution.”

The move has sparked protests by the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), the country’s largest body of traders and industrialists, in Karachi which the KCCI members say could be expanded to the whole country, if the government did not withdraw the provision decision.

In an interview with Arab News, KCCI President Muhammad Jawed Bilwani said investors were already deserting Pakistan for Gulf countries, Vietnam, South Korea, US, African and Central Asian regions and even Afghanistan, and more people plan on joining them after the latest move.

“Most of the people have shifted to the UAE (United Arab Emirates) and Gulf countries where they say the tax rate and electric tariffs have been fixed for 10 years,” the KCCI president said.

“In those countries the tax rate applied is fixed for a decade, unlike Pakistan where we see a change every year. The utility rates are fixed, the departments are fixed, there is one-window operation. Everything is made available for you within 24 hours. The government’s response is very good.”

Arab News reached out to Pakistan’s finance adviser Khurram Schehzad and FBR spokesperson Najeeb Ahmad Memon, who did not respond to requests for comment on the subject.

In his budget speech on June 10, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said granting policing powers to the FBR was part of the government’s efforts to reform Pakistan’s weak revenue system that has created an estimated tax gap of Rs5.5 trillion ($19.4 billion).

“This situation was unacceptable,” the minister said at the time.

Pakistan has the region’s lowest tax-to-GDP ratio that the government seeks to increase to 14 percent in the next three years in line with the International Monetary Fund’s loan program that supports the new budget.

The IMF’s tough conditions have made the government to take steps like the withdrawal of energy subsidies and toughening laws to meet Rs14 trillion ($50 billion) tax target for the next fiscal year starting July 1. Giving policing powers to FBR officers was another such measure.

“That day [June 10] some members asked us what help the [Karachi] chamber could extend if we wanted to make a committee to shift our businesses abroad,” Bilwani told Arab News, warning of going on a strike if the government did not address their concerns.

The agitation may jeopardize the macroeconomic stability Pakistan has achieved in the last one year. Sharif’s government is already coping with the persisting political instability that is keeping foreign investors away from Pakistan and the country has not attracted more than $3 billion foreign direct investment in about last two decades, according to official data.

“[We] will pay taxes with honor,” reads one of the KCCI banners the traders have placed throughout Pakistan’s commercial capital of Karachi.

Bilwani said the government was granting “very dangerous powers” to the FBR that would then be able to seize bank accounts of traders, withdraw money from them and arrest them.

According to the KCCI data, more than 24,000 Pakistani businesses have registered with the Dubai Chamber of Commerce in the last two and a half years. As many as 8,036 Pakistani firms registered in 2023, 8,179 in 2024 and over 8,100 by the initial months of 2025.

“Thanks to Dubai Chamber membership data, we can see a clear trend of Pakistani businesses establishing themselves in the UAE,” said KCCI spokesman Aamir Hasan.

Presently, he said, more than 47,000 Pakistani-owned firms are operating in the UAE, including 8,000 having established there within last one year.

“The kind of direction this budget has taken it can neither help the exports industry nor the import substitute industry to run,” said Bilwani, who was unsure if the government had made any changes in the new budget which the lower house of Pakistan’s parliament passed on Thursday.

“The exports of this country have been continuously falling for the last two months.”

Pakistan’s exports declined by 6 percent in May to $2.67 billion and by 17.66 percent to $2.17 billion in April, according to official figures. The exports rose by 3 percent to $2.65 billion in March.

“Who will survive in this environment? Those who have money can go anywhere and do business,” Bilwani said, adding that mill owners would soon start agitating in Pakistan’s textiles and sports goods hubs like Faisalabad, Sialkot and Lahore.

This departure by industries will significantly increase unemployment and poverty as well as deteriorate the law-and-order situation in the country, according to the traders’ representative.

In a separate KCCI statement, Bilwani said “the protest will escalate. If our demands are ignored, we may be left with no option, but to call for citywide or even nationwide strikes.”

“We don’t see things are in order,” Bilwani told Arab News. “The government should correct its decisions and set them in the right direction so the industry could run.”


Pakistan, China discuss regional security, agree to strengthen multilateral institutions

Updated 27 June 2025
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Pakistan, China discuss regional security, agree to strengthen multilateral institutions

  • Fifth round of Pakistan-China Consultations on Multilateral Issues held in Beijing, says Pakistan’s foreign office
  • Discussions take place amid regional tensions following recent India-Pakistan and Iran-Israel military conflicts

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani and Chinese delegations on Thursday discussed regional and international security, reiterating their commitment to strengthen multilateral institutions such as the United Nations, the Pakistani foreign office said. 

These discussions took place during the fifth round of the Pakistan-China Consultations on Multilateral Issues in Beijing on Thursday. The Pakistani delegation was led by Special Secretary (UN) Ambassador Nabeel Munir while the Chinese side was headed by Shen Bo, director general of the Department of International Organizations and Conferences of the Chinese foreign ministry. 

The discussions took place amid regional tensions in South Asia and Middle East following India’s conflict with Pakistan in May, and Iran’s recent military confrontation with Israel. Though both conflicts resulted in a ceasefire, they triggered fears of a wider war breaking out in the region. 

“During the consultations, the two sides exchanged views on a broad spectrum of issues pertaining to the United Nations, in particular matters related to regional and international peace and security on the agenda of the UN Security Council,” Pakistan’s foreign office said. 

“The two sides expressed satisfaction at the strong convergence of views on all issues of mutual concern, and reiterated their commitment to continue working together for strengthening multilateral institutions, especially the United Nations.”

The foreign ministry said Munir separately met China’s Assistant Foreign Minister Miao Deyu on the sidelines of the consultations. The two sides expressed their desire to continue working together to take the “historic relations” between Pakistan and China to new heights, the statement said. 

China enjoys cordial relations with Pakistan and is also a major ally and investor of Islamabad. Bejing has invested in a multi-billion-dollar project that connects China and Pakistan through a network of highways, railways and pipelines. 

Since its initiation in 2013, CPEC has seen tens of billions of dollars funneled into massive transport, energy and infrastructure projects in Pakistan. But the undertaking has been hit by Islamabad struggling to keep up its financial obligations as well as attacks on Chinese targets by militants.

While Pakistan has a historic rivalry with nuclear-armed India, Beijing’s border disputes with New Delhi also means that its ties with India are frosty. Pakistan and China enjoy military, defense and economic ties as Beijing remains wary of India’s influence in the region.


Pakistan will continue to play ‘constructive role’ for Middle East peace, PM Sharif tells US

Updated 26 June 2025
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Pakistan will continue to play ‘constructive role’ for Middle East peace, PM Sharif tells US

  • Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif speaks to United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, says Sharif’s office
  • Both agreed to continue working closely to strengthen Pakistan-US ties, particularly through enhanced trade, says PMO

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif spoke to United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday, telling him Islamabad will continue to play a “constructive role” to bring peace in the Middle East, the Pakistani premier’s office said amid regional tensions following the Iran-Israel military conflict.

The 12-day war between Iran and Israel began on June 13 after Israel carried out airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, killing several senior military commanders and scientists, while officials in Tehran were engaged in nuclear negotiations with the US. The conflict worsened when before the ceasefire announced by Trump, US forces struck three Iranian nuclear sites last week. The American president claimed the strikes set back Iran’s nuclear program by years.

Pakistan had remained engaged in talks with regional partners Saudi Arabia, Iran, China, Qatar and other states to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East. Sharif said on Thursday Tehran had thanked Pakistan’s political and military leadership for playing a constructive role during the war.

“While exchanging views on the current situation in the Middle East, the Prime Minister stated that Pakistan would continue to play a constructive role for bringing peace to the Middle East,” Sharif’s office said in a statement.

“While appreciating these efforts, Secretary Rubio said the US would like to work with Pakistan for promoting peace and stability to the region.”

Pakistan and India also engaged in a days-long conflict last month before US President Donald Trump announced on May 10 that both countries had agreed to a ceasefire. India and Pakistan had pounded each other with missiles, fighter jets, artillery fire and drone strikes during the four days of conflict that killed over 70 on both sides.

Pakistan has repeatedly thanked Trump for his mediation during the crisis and decided to formally nominate him for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. The American president has claimed he convinced both sides to back down by threatening not to do a trade deal with them.

During their conversation, Sharif thanked Rubio for the “key role” Washington played in the Pakistan-India ceasefire, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said.

“The Prime Minister and Secretary Rubio agreed to continue working closely to strengthen Pakistan-US relations particularly through enhanced trade,” the statement said.

While the May 10 ceasefire continues to persist between the nuclear-armed nations, tensions simmer as New Delhi refuses to budge from its earlier stance of suspending a decades-old water-sharing treaty with Pakistan.

Pakistan has said any attempts to stop or divert its flow of water by India will be regarded as an “act of war” and will be responded to with full force.


Pakistani stocks decline by 715 points over profit-taking after two days of gains

Updated 26 June 2025
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Pakistani stocks decline by 715 points over profit-taking after two days of gains

  • KSE-100 Index closes at 122,046.46 points, witnessing a decline of 0.58 percent, as per stock market data
  • Profit-taking driven by fiscal year-end considerations, short-term portfolio rebalancing, says financial analyst

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a bearish trend on Thursday after two days of gains, losing 715.18 points to close at 122,046.46 points, which a financial analyst attributed to profit-taking driven by fiscal year-end considerations.

The PSX closed at 122,046.46 points when trading ended on Thursday, witnessing a negative change of 0.58 percent. The KSE-100 had closed at 122,761.64 points on Wednesday and before that on Tuesday, it surged by 6,079 points or 5.23 percent to close at 122,246 points. Analysts attributed the surge on Tuesday to the ceasefire announcement between Iran and Israel.

As many as 473 companies transacted their shares in the stock market on Thursday, with 200 of them recording gains and 237 sustaining losses, state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) said, adding that the share price of 36 companies remained unchanged.

“After two consecutive sessions of strong gains, the local bourse witnessed a round of profit-taking today, driven by fiscal year-end considerations and short-term portfolio rebalancing,” Maaz Mulla, the vice president of equity sales at Topline Securities Limited, said in a statement.

Mulla said the benchmark KSE-100 index saw a “volatile ride“— climbing 656 points intraday before losing 715 points at close of business. He said the closing figure of 122,046 points reflected “a cautious investor mood” as the quarter draws to a close.

He said despite the decline at the end of the day, the overall market activity remained “vibrant.”

“Total traded volume clocked in at 750 million shares, with a traded value of PKR 29.8 billion,” Mulla said.

APP reported that the three top trading companies on Thursday were Pak Int. Bulk with 37,503,501 shares traded at Rs 8.52 per share, WorldCall Telecom with 33,285,442 shares at Rs 1.45 per share and Pervez Ahmed Co. with 32,962,174 shares at Rs 3.29 per share.


Pakistan’s National Assembly passes $62 billion budget for next fiscal year

Updated 26 June 2025
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Pakistan’s National Assembly passes $62 billion budget for next fiscal year

  • Budget reflects Pakistan’s attempt to balance security concerns with fiscal reform efforts under $7 billion IMF loan program
  • Government has aimed to reduce fiscal deficit to 3.9% of GDP for next year’s budget, increase defense spending by over 20%

ISLAMABAD: The lower house of Pakistan’s parliament passed the federal budget for the next fiscal year on Thursday, which has a total outlay of Rs17.57 trillion [$62 billion] and projects economic growth at 4.2%, state-run media reported.

The federal government unveiled the federal budget on June 10, which reflects a 7% decrease in overall spending compared to the current fiscal year. The largest portion of the budget – Rs8.21 trillion ($29 billion), or nearly half of total expenditures – will go toward debt servicing, continuing to strain Pakistan’s fiscal space.

Another salient feature of the budget is Pakistan’s move to increase defense spending by more than 20% in the 2025-26 fiscal year to Rs2.55 trillion ($9.04 billion). Islamabad seeks to bolster military capabilities following Pakistan’s worst confrontation with India in nearly three decades in May.

“The National Assembly has passed the federal budget for the next fiscal year, with a total outlay of 17,573 billion rupees, focusing on sustainable and inclusive economic growth,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported.

The House passed the budget with certain amendments, giving effect to the federal government’s proposals for the financial year set to begin from July 1.

The bill was read out in the National Assembly and approved clause by clause before the session was adjourned until 11 am, Friday.

Pakistan remains under a $7 billion IMF loan program approved last year, and the budget reflects an attempt to balance security concerns with ongoing fiscal reform efforts.

The government has aimed to reduce the fiscal deficit to 3.9% of the GDP for the next year’s budget. While it has projected a growth of 4.2% for the upcoming year, Pakistan’s economy grew just 2.6% in 2024/25, falling short of its 3.6% target due to weak agriculture and industrial output. Inflation has been projected for next year’s budget at 7.5%.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Pakistan’s main tax authority, has been tasked with collecting Rs14.1 trillion of the projected Rs19.3 trillion in gross revenue in the budget, marking a 19% year-on-year increase.

While announcing the budget on June 10, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb had announced plans to grow IT exports to $25 billion over the next five years and forecast a rise in workers’ remittances to $38 billion by the end of the current fiscal year.