'Shahbaz Sharif is my hero,' says Maryam Nawaz

LAHORE: Maryam Nawaz Sharif, the daughter of the former prime minister, has once again rejected reports of infighting within the ruling family and party, saying that rumors of infighting are overblown.

“It’s not a divided house,” she said in an interview to a foreign newspaper, while responding to rumors of a tug of war within the family over who should be at the helms of party affairs.

When asked about her uncle Shahbaz Sharif possibly becoming prime minister if the party wins next generals elections, she said: “He’s the most competent person. He’s my hero. I love him to death.”

The report quoted MNA Hamza Shahbaz Sharif’s TV interview in which he had admitting to political differences with Ms. Sharif and expressed hope that he would be able bring Nawaz Sharif around to his point of view.

Reports of internal differences within the ruling family and party have been circulating since ex-PM Nawaz Sharif was sent home in July this year in the Panama Papers. Recently, one of Sharif’s close aides, Riaz Pirzada, advised the younger Sharif to take over the party reins until his elder brother comes out of corruption cases.

When asked about her ambitions to become prime minister, Ms Sharif said her family will decide if she can become prime minister.

Commenting on the corruption cases she and members of her family are facing, she said the cases are politically motivated and nothing more than political victimization and pressure tactics.

Ms Sharif said support for the Pakistan Muslim League has further galvanized in the wake of her father’s disqualification. She said she too was undeterred, unperturbed, fighting.

She said it was her grandfather who first recognized her administrative and political potential and appointed her to important positions in the family’s operations. Over the years, she said, her father, too, came to appreciate her abilities.

“People around me tell me I was meant for a certain role,” she said when asked whether she ever saw herself as a future prime minister.