News Desk |
Kulsoom Nawaz, the wife of deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, has passed away after battling an extensive coma for several months in London.
Begum Kulsoom Nawaz had flown out to London after being diagnosed with lymphoma in August 2017 and had since been in treatment in London in a private clinic at Harley Street. In June 2018, Kulsoom Nawaz suffered a cardiac arrest and had since been placed on the ventilator. She was placed on life support earlier today as her health deteriorated last night. Sources at the clinic said she had developed a lungs problem again. “She had been responding well without the ventilator until last night,” the sources said, according to local media.
Mrs. Kulsoom Nawaz married former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in April 1971. The couple had four children together: Hassan, Hussain, Maryam, and Asma. She was also the granddaughter of legendary Punjabi wrestler, Gama.
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. She secured 59,413 votes and defeated Yasmin Rashid of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. The NA-120 seat fell vacant after her husband, Nawaz Sharif, was disqualified by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in the Panama Papers case.
Read more: What happened to Begum Kulsoom Nawaz ‘s health now? – Analysis
Apart from being a member of the national assembly once, her political career only extended to being the first lady for three different tenures of her husband as Prime Minister. Kulsoom was arrested by the Pakistan Army Corps of Military Police and immediately shifted to her local residence in 1999 after former Martial Law Administrator Gen ® Musharraf staged a coup de’tat against her husband. Nawaz Sharif named his wife as the President of Pakistan Muslim League in 1999, and she remained on that post till 2002.