ISLAMABAD – Begum Kulsoom Nawaz, the wife of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was not merely a political figure out of her relationship with the Sharif family as she herself led a struggle against the military dictator Pervaiz Musharraf.
Born into a Kashmiri family in Lahore in 1950, Kulsoom Nawaz attended Islamia College and Forman Christian College University for her graduation. Kulsoom completed her master’s in Urdu from Punjab University in 1970 and married Nawaz Sharif the following year.
The couple has four children: Maryam, Asma, Hassan and Hussain out of which only Maryam is involved in mainstream Pakistani politics.
Kulsoom also served as the President of Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) after military dictator put Nawaz in exile by a bloodless coup in 1999. She served in the capacity till 2002.
The former first lady also won the NA-120 bye-polls in September last year after defeating PTI’s Yasmin Rashid though she was not able to practically take part in the election campaign for the seat vacated by her husband.
Kulsoom was not able to take oath as a parliamentarian owing to her illness. She was closest to former premier Nawaz Sharif in terms of relation but was not dragged into the Panama Papers controversy that led to the disqualification of her husband.
Kulsoom’s maternal grandfather Ghulam Mohammad Baksh, better known by The Great Gama, is considered one of the greatest wrestlers of all time.
Begum Kulsoom served as the first lady of Pakistan for three non-consecutive terms from 1990-1993, 1997-1999 and 2013-2017.
Generally she preferred to avoid media limelight, however, the lady shot to fame as she led the struggle against Pervaiz Musharraf.
One of her pictures caught the attention of media showing her inside a car lifted by the police.
