LONDON, September 11: Begum Kulsoom Nawaz, the wife of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif passed away here on Tuesday after battling cancer. Her brother-in-law Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President Shehbaz Sharif, and her son, Hussain Nawaz, confirmed that the former first lady breathed her last at a clinic in London.
Begum Kulsoom is survived by her husband and four children; Maryam, Asma, Hassan, and Hussain.
Begum Kulsoom was under treatment at London’s Harley Street Clinic since June 2017. She was placed on life support last night as her health deteriorated.
Sources at the clinic said she had developed a complication in her lungs. “She had been responding well without the ventilator until last night,” the sources said.
Kulsoom Nawaz was born in 1950 and was the granddaughter of world-renowned weight-lifter Ghulam Muhammad, known locally as ‘Gaama Pahelwan.’
Begum Kulsoom received her early education from Lahore’s Madrasa-Tul-Banat and later enrolled at the Lady Griffin High School. For her undergraduate studies, she attended the Former Christian College in Lahore, and then completed a masters at the Punjab University. She was still studying when she married Nawaz Sharif, the son of a businessman, in 1971.
She became Pakistan’s first lady thrice; first from 1990 to 1993, then from 1997 to 1999, and again from 2013 to 2017.
In September 2017, she won the by-election from NA-120 Lahore. Begum Nawaz was under treatment at this time and her campaign was run by her daughter Maryam Nawaz. -Agencies
