Maryam Nawaz Sharif

Born under Bhutto

At the time of Sharif’s birth in 1973, her father’s family had recently lost its main avenue of wealth: the House of Ittefaq (Ittefaq Group), an industrial conglomerate with interests in sugar, steel, and textiles. The company was among the industries nationalized in 1972 by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (president, 1971–73; prime minister, 1973–77). The Sharif family became involved with the opposition, led by the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), in effort to change Bhutto’s policies and, after Gen. Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq seized power from Bhutto in 1977, the company was returned to the family’s hands.

Sharif’s mother, Kulsoom Nawaz (née Butt), also came from a business family and shared a similar background to Sharif’s father. Although Kulsoom Nawaz largely remained out of the public light, she was highly educated with a master’s degree in literature and a doctorate in philosophy, and she was a trusted adviser and speechwriter for Nawaz Sharif.

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Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz (PML-N)

Under Zia-ul-Haq, Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shehbaz Sharif remained in politics and led a branch of the PML that came to be known as Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz (PML-N). After rising to national attention as chief minister of Punjab province (1985–90), Nawaz Sharif was elected prime minister three times, the first two terms in the 1990s, alternating power with Bhutto’s daughter Benazir Bhutto. He again served as prime minister in 2013–17, during which Shehbaz Sharif served as chief minister of Punjab province (2013–18), and the brothers together facilitated large development projects that were sponsored by China (in particular the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor [CPEC]). In opposition to the PTI and its leader Imran Khan, the Bhutto family joined in coalition with the Sharif family in 2022 to replace Khan. Shehbaz Sharif became prime minister with the Bhuttos’ support, and, after elections were held in 2024, they ultimately supported his bid for prime minister again. Despite the decades-long rivalry between the Sharifs and the Bhuttos, Maryam Nawaz Sharif fondly recalled a deeply candid meeting with Benazir Bhutto in the 2000s and has expressed a sense of personal sympathy with members of the Bhutto family.

Exiles and scandals

In 1999 Sharif’s father, in his second stint as prime minister, failed in an attempt to oust the chief of the army, Pervez Musharraf, while Musharraf was out of the country. Musharraf subsequently seized power and brought charges against members of the Sharif family, and the family fled to Saudi Arabia in 2000 in a deal with the government to avoid prison. They were ultimately allowed to return in 2007.

In 2017 Sharif, her father, and her husband were disqualified from holding public office after leaked documents, dubbed the Panama Papers, revealed that Sharif owned shell companies that her father was alleged to have used illegally to funnel assets abroad. In April 2018 the family left for London, and in July, upon her father’s conviction, Sharif was convicted of abetting his crime. They returned to Pakistan soon afterward to serve their prison sentences but were released in September upon appeal. She was again arrested in August 2019 while under investigation for money laundering, but she was released on bail in November in exchange for surrendering her passport. Charges were never filed on the matter, and in September 2022 Sharif’s 2018 conviction was overturned, clearing Sharif for public office.

Kulsoom Nawaz, Sharif’s mother, occasionally took the reins for Nawaz Sharif when the family faced legal trouble. As he and other members of the family faced charges in 2000, Kulsoom Nawaz took over as president of the PML-N and organized a protest march—which she intended to lead before a 10-hour standoff with police led to her arrest. In 2017, when her husband’s parliamentary seat became vacant upon his disqualification, Kulsoom Nawaz ran to fill the seat and won (although she was receiving medical treatment abroad and was never sworn in). While campaigning for her mother in that election, Sharif said that her mother deserved votes not because she was Nawaz Sharif’s wife but because in 2000 “she challenged a dictator at a time when everyone had gone into hiding.” Kulsoom Nawaz died of cancer in London in September 2018; Sharif and her father were granted a five-day furlough from prison to attend her funeral.

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