Punjab’s first woman chief minister, Maryam Nawaz, thanked God and her supporters in her maiden speech at the provincial legislature.

“Today, I am upset that the respectable members of the opposition benches are not present here […] I wish they would be a part of the political and democratic process,” she said. Earlier, PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council MPAs boycotted the election of the CM.

Maryam recalled that despite several challenges and difficulties, her party members and the PML-N never left the ground empty.

“If the opposition was present today, and if they had protested during my speech, I would have been happy,” she said.