Pakistan: Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam submits nominations for Punjab CM

Senior PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, on Sunday submitted her nomination papers for the post of chief minister of Pakistan’s politically crucial Punjab province.

“The nomination papers of Maryam Nawaz Sharif for the Chief Minister of Punjab have been submitted,” the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said in a post on X.

Maryam, the 50-year-old senior vice president of the PML-N, is set to become the first woman chief minister of Punjab province, a province of over 120 million people, as she enjoys the support of the majority in the house.

She has already been given security usually provided to the chief minister and she is holding meetings with the top bureaucracy of the province.

She is considered to be the political heir of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, who surprisingly nominated his younger brother Shehbaz Sharif as his party’s prime ministerial candidate.

“The election of Chief Minister Punjab will take place on Monday (tomorrow). The candidates of CM can submit nomination papers on Sunday (today),” Punjab Assembly Secretary Amer Habib said in a statement on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the PML-N clinched both speaker and deputy speaker offices in the Punjab Assembly.