Nawaz Sharif was born in Lahore, Punjab, on 25 December 1949. The Sharif family are Punjabis of Kashmiri origin.

His father, Muhammad Sharif, was an upper-middle-class businessman and industrialist.

His family owns Ittefaq Group, a multimillion-dollar steel conglomerate, and Sharif Group, a conglomerate with holdings in agriculture, transport and sugar mills.

Nawaz Sharif Education

Nawaz Sharif went to Saint Anthony High School. He graduated from the Government College University (GCU) with an art and business degree and then received a law degree from the Law College of Punjab University in Lahore.

Nawaz Sharif Wife

Kulsoom was born on 29 March 1950 in Lahore into a Kashmiri family. She married Nawaz Sharif, the three-time Prime Minister of Pakistan, in April 1971.

The couple have four children: Maryam, Asma, Hassan and Hussain. Kulsoom was elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan for the first time from NA-120 (Lahore-III) as a candidate of PML (N) in by-polls held in September 2017.

In June 2018, Nawaz Sharif suffered cardiac arrest and was placed on a ventilator. She died on 11 September 2018 at the age of 68 in London while both her husband Nawaz Sharif and daughter Maryam were serving jail terms.

Nawaz Sharif Daughter

Maryam was born on 28 October 1973 in Lahore, Pakistan, to Nawaz Sharif and Kulsoom Butt.

She received her early education from the Convent of Jesus and Mary, Lahore. She wanted to become a doctor hence she enrolled in King Edward Medical College in the late 1980s.

In 1992, she married Safdar Awan at the age of 19 and assumed her husband’s surname as Mariam Safdar. Awan was serving as captain in Pakistan Army at that time and was the security officer of Nawaz Sharif during the latter’s tenure as Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Nawaz Sharif Party

Nawaz Sharif suffered financial losses when former Prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto appropriated his family’s steel business under the nationalisation policies.

Sharif entered politics as a result, initially focused on regaining control of the steel plants. In 1976, Sharif joined the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), a conservative front rooted in the Punjab province.

Nawaz Sharif
Nawaz Sharif

During the 1980s, Sharif gained influence as a supporter of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq’s military government. Zia-ul-Haq agreed to return the steel industry to Sharif, who convinced the general to denationalise and deregulate industries to improve the economy.

In 1985, Khan nominated Sharif as Chief Minister of the Punjab, against the wishes of Prime Minister Muhammad Khan Junejo. With the backing of the army, Sharif secured a landslide victory in the 1985 elections.

As chief minister, Sharif stressed welfare and development activities and the maintenance of law and order.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif 

The Conservatives first came to power in a democratic Pakistan under Sharif’s leadership. Nawaz Sharif became the 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan on 1 November 1990, succeeding Benazir Bhutto.

Soon Sharif had campaigned on a conservative platform and vowed to reduce government corruption.

Sharif introduced an economy based on privatisation and economic liberalisation to reverse the nationalisation by Zulfikar Bhutto, notably for banks and industries.

Later he legalised foreign money exchange to be transacted through private money exchangers. His privatisation policies were continued by both Benazir Bhutto in the mid-1990s and Shaukat Aziz in the 2000s.

He also improved the nation’s infrastructure and spurred the growth of digital telecommunication.

Under the close scrutiny of the Pakistan Armed Forces, an interim and transitional government was formed and new parliamentary election was held after three months.

Following 1993 elections, the PPP returned to power under Benazir Bhutto. By 1996, continuous large-scale corruption by the government of Benazir Bhutto had deteriorated the country’s economy, which was nearing failure.

In the 1997 parliamentary elections, Sharif and the PML-N won an overwhelming victory, with an exclusive mandate from across Pakistan.

Later he returned to premiership after people elected the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) in 1997. He served as PM until army removed him from power in 1999.

After serving in prison and exile for more than a decade, he returned to politics in 2011 and led his party to victory for a third time in 2013.

Fall from Power

In 2017, Supreme Court of Pakistan removed Sharif from office by the  regarding revelations from the Panama Papers case.

On 6 July 2018, the Federal Judicial Complex of Pakistan sentenced Sharif to ten years in prison.

Court gave Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz and her husband Safdar Awan seven years and one year, respectively. in prison sentences.

Subsequently the Police arrested two of them on their arrival in Lahore on 13 July and imprisoned in Adiala jail. Court fined Maryam and Sharif £2 million and £8 million, respectively.

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