NEW YORK – Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, emerged as one of the most powerful women around the world at a time when she is facing trial at an accountability court in Pakistan.
In a 2017 list issued by US newspaper, New York Times, Maryam Nawaz was named among top 11 powerful women of the world about whom the correspondents of the organisation wrote in 2017.
The newspaper’s list titled ‘11 Powerful Women We Met Around the World in 2017’ has aimed to highlight the personalities around the world, “who have led interesting lives and done extraordinary things, or perhaps recently gone through a remarkable experience”.
The papers stated while describing Mayam: “She had recently emerged as the right hand of her father, the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. But corruption charges are clouding her rapid rise”.
Maryam, who is also known as a closet adviser of her father, emerged in Pakistan’s political sphere during recent months “as a possible long-term heir” to the leadership of ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) by sidelining many influential persons within the family, including her cousin Hamza Shehbaz.
After her father, Nawaz Sharif, was disqualified by the Supreme Court in July in the wake of Panamagate Papers case, Maryam took a much more active role in the party. She also publicly slammed “unelected power players, the military and the judiciary” after the verdict.
She also actively took part in a political campaign and cemented victory of her mother, Begum Kulsoom Nawaz in NA-120 by-elections, a constituency fell vacant after Sharif’s disqualification.
Other powerful women include world’s oldest woman Emma Morano, Saudi-activist Manal al-Sharif, Sweden’s Proponent of ‘Feminist Foreign Policy’ Margot Wallstrom, Henda Ayari, Olive Yang, Yu Xiuhua, Asli Erdogan, Alice Schwarzer, Letizia Battaglia and Sinta Nuriyah.
