Maryam says Nawaz Sharif to remain party head

Islamabad: Ousted Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz on Saturday said the statement that ‘family decided that I should be leading the party’ was wrongly ascribed to her.

According to the interview published in the New York Times, Maryam Nawaz hesitated to directly address whether she had ambitions to become Prime Minister, saying it was her family’s decision that she take the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) reins.

Ms Maryam took to Twitter and elucidated that Nawaz was and will be leading the PML-N and that she was not even an aspirant and happy to be working as PML-N worker. In the interview, Ms Maryam also said that the proof to send her to prison was “missing” and that the victory in the September by-election was evidence that people still stand by her.
 
Until 2012, she had quietly managed the family’s philanthropic Sharif Trust, rising to political prominence only when she helped run her father’s re-election campaign in 2013.
 
Since then, she has managed to sideline her cousin Hamza Shehbaz, long considered a potential standard-bearer, who is now conspicuous by his absence from rallies and party meetings.
 
Talking about her uncle Shehbaz Sharif, who is a three-time chief minister of Punjab, Maryam Nawaz said: “He’s the most competent person. He’s my hero. I love him to death.”
 
“I don’t know what tomorrow holds,” she said. “But I think I owe it to the people. I need to reach out to them.”