The selection of Maryam Nawaz as the chief minister of the Punjab province is a milestone in Pakistani politics, the US has said, asserting that it looks forward to cooperating with Islamabad on integrating women more fully into the country\u2019s political life. Maryam, the 50-year-old daughter of three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, took oath as the first-ever woman chief minister of Pakistan\u2019s most populous and politically crucial Punjab province last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer (Maryam Nawaz Sharif) selection as chief minister is a milestone in Pakistani politics,\u201d State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters at his daily news conference on Monday. Maryam is considered the political heir to 74-year-old Nawaz Sharif, the three-time former prime minister.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look forward to cooperating with Pakistan more broadly on integrating women more fully into the country\u2019s political life, in the economy, including through the US-Pakistan Women\u2019s Council, civil society, and other decision-making spaces,\u201d he said. \u201cAn inclusive Pakistan makes for a strong, prosperous country which all Pakistanis benefit from, and so we are always pleased when we see cracks in the glass ceiling anywhere in the world,\u201d Miller said in response to a question.<\/p>\n
However, he refrained from commenting on the election of the new prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif. On Monday, Shehbaz, 72, assumed the cash-strapped country\u2019s reins for a second time, nearly a month after an inconclusive election marred by allegations of vote rigging.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to speak with respect to the new prime minister, but as we\u2019ve said before, we value our longstanding partnership with Pakistan and have always viewed a strong, prosperous, and democratic Pakistan as critical to US-Pakistan interests, and our engagement with new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his government will continue to focus on advancing these shared interests,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The selection of Maryam Nawaz as the chief minister of the Punjab province is a milestone in Pakistani politics, the\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":33109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[3400,332,3028,10536,10716,776,2970],"class_list":["post-33108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-relations","tag-2024-pakistan-elections","tag-pakistan","tag-politics","tag-punjab-chief-minister-maryam-nawaz","tag-state-department-spokesperson-matthew-miller","tag-us","tag-womens-rights"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}