How the ‘pampered princess’ of Pakistan became the
lion-hearted fighter the country needs
No longer a dowdy princess, Maryam Nawaz Sharif is now a graceful
politician with improved Urdu diction and sharper clothes. She is on the
front line.
Imran Khan called her the “Mughal princess”, and his army
of trolls called her the “corrupt daughter”. But now, Maryam Nawaz Sharif is
the face of true change in Pakistan. She is ironically the ‘Naya Pakistan’, to
borrow from Imran Khan’s slogan.
From a pampered
princess who was mostly known for attending a prestigious convent school in
Murree, marrying young and demurely smiling in the shadows, Maryam has become
the symbol of resistance against the deep state in Pakistan.
She is
abused by some Pakistanis as the ‘thief’ who ‘looted’ the nation’s wealth, who
wore Gucci slippers to jail and bought shampoo from Abu Dhabi airport. Perhaps
the trolls have a reason to be angry at a bourgeois family who they blame for
all of the country’s ills. But despite the vitriol and the naked display of
resentment against the Sharifs by some, Maryam has changed the narrative
completely. Along with the thrice ousted PM Nawaz Sharif, his heir apparent
presented herself for arrest in Lahore and is now in Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi.
Lahore, the
seat of Sharifs’ power, and the city where Maryam grew up is where the father
and daughter landed from England to “face the law” as she said in an emotional
video circulated to supporters who swarmed the streets.
In recent
years, Maryam went through a makeover from her previous image as a dowdy
princess to a graceful politician. While she was always her father’s champion,
her public debut as a leader coincided with her personal transformation. She
improved her Urdu diction, shed her mummy-type look and accent, lost weight and
dressed sharper. Now she is on the front line.
When she
addressed the media in the UK, Maryam spoke confidently. In Pakistan, she
presented herself for arrest wearing a smile and a dupatta on her head.
She has,
over time, also changed her father’s party – gently nudging it away from its
earlier right-wing politics toward a centrist and liberal direction. She did
this quietly, as she stood by Nawaz’s side, addressing jalsas.
From a PM who had introduced a law where a man could forgive his son if he
killed his daughter (famously known as the Diyat laws), Nawaz had become a
champion of democratic values. He called Pakistan’s persecuted minorities, the
Ahmadis, his brothers and distanced himself from provocative and hate-filled comments
of others. During his party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) tenure,
they passed a bill where no family member could forgive honour killers. From
being a Zia protégé, Nawaz became a rebel with a cause. And it was Maryam who
held his hand and led him to a historic point in Pakistan.
Since 2013,
she had been fully active in the PML-N’s politics. Her presence on Twitter grew
as she responded with grace and warmth to both appreciation and criticism. She
was appointed the head of a youth programme but had to resign after a court
order deemed it illegal. The establishment was on to her – and did not want her
anywhere near the seat of power.
As the
Rangers surrounded her and her father on July 13, 2018, and refused to allow
them a medical doctor, I could have laughed and called it karma and retweeted a
photo of a celebratory cake that appeared on my Twitter timeline.
There was a
time when the police had come looking for a family member of mine for his
political affiliations in Karachi. This was when Nawaz Sharif was the Prime
Minister. The state-sanctioned chaos and police brutality continued even when
Benazir Bhutto became the PM.
But I
couldn’t laugh as I watched the father and daughter. I clasped my jaw in horror
and saw another cycle of political victimisation, this time at those who had
been the most powerful, the most privileged.
Maryam
receives multiple rape, abusive and venomous threats from her opponents. They
even taunt her for marrying a man of her choice. Her detractors, mostly from
Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party, attack her character and photoshop her
photos over images of animals and other questionable forms.
Imran
Khan’s own attitude towards feminism and the treatment of women is
well-documented. His party, which positions itself as a party of change and
betterment, decries Western feminism. Maryam is paying the price that women
must pay for being in the public eye in this part of the world. They face the
hate and naked misogyny just because they are women.
Yet she
returned.
Political
earthquakes can work in mysterious ways. Imran was all set to win a ‘moral’
victory and march to the PM house. His party had celebrated the decline of
Nawaz Sharif and his corrupt family. Analysts had written off the Sharifs after
the Panama Papers and Calibri Gate and the court giving ten years to Nawaz and
seven to Maryam over what many commentators call a ‘judicial coup’. I expected
her, a sheltered daughter who had lived a fairly comfortable exile in Saudi
Arabia, to quietly fade away into the shadows.
Many
outraged at the idea of comparing her to the dynamic Benazir Bhutto, insisting
that Maryam was no leader and no inspiration to the millions and that she
couldn’t stand a chance against the upcoming swell of public favour for Imran
Khan.
But now as
Maryam faces the seven years in jail, burnt at the altar of political
victimisation, she is being lauded as ‘lion-hearted’. In a handwritten letter,
she has refused any additional facilities at Adiala jail. As soon as she
returns to the public sphere, she will be the hero: rising from the ashes of
hate and targeted misogyny. She may well become the face of a new progressive
Pakistan.
The author is a liberal, feminist journalist,
YouTuber, Supermom & biryani connoisseur in Pakistan. Her Twitter handle is @mahwashajaz_
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