Maryam Nawaz of PML-N has been elected Chief Minister of Punjab. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam was elected as the first woman Chief Minister.
This is the first time in Pakistan’s more than 7-decade history that a province has a woman chief minister.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz candidate Maryam got 220 votes. Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Ahmed Khan announced the result.
Aftab Khan, the candidate of PML-N’s rival and Imran Khan’s party alliance Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), boycotted the election. So he didn’t get any votes.
He and other SIC legislators boycotted the session after Speaker Khan did not allow him to speak at the beginning of the session.
Meanwhile, newly elected Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz said in her victory speech in the Punjab Assembly, “I have been arrested on my journey as a politician.” My father has been arrested. I lost my mother. Yet I have no revenge in me.’
Maryam also asserted that there will be zero tolerance for high interference by the police. The Taxila incident last week will be investigated.
A policeman slapped and pushed an elderly woman to the ground in Taxila on Saturday. He was fired after a video of the incident went viral.
The responsibility of 12.7 million people of Punjab will fall on the shoulders of Chief Minister Maryam. More than half of the total population of Pakistan resides in this province.
Elections to Pakistan’s National Assembly and four provincial assemblies were held on February 8. PML-N won the highest number of 138 seats in Punjab. After that, the PTI-backed independent candidates of former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party got the second highest number of 114 seats.
Out of the 23 independent candidates who won the elections, outside the PTI-backed ones, 20 joined the PML-N. This increased the number of seats of PML-N to 158.
