New Delhi: A grand political wedding kept Pakistanis occupied last weekend. It was the second marriage of Punjab CM Maryam Nawaz’s son Junaid Safdar. And Pakistanis refused to get over it.
The opulent wedding grabbed eyeballs for multiple reasons. First, Pakistanis are unsure if the “country can afford yet another wedding sponsored by taxpayers’ money”. Second, they have qualms about Safdar’s bride wearing a Sabyasachi lehenga. Third, there is the most talked-about transformation of Punjab’s IT minister, Marriyum Aurangzeb. From Reels to X posts to even mainstream newspapers such as Dawn decoding wedding looks, this was a wedding the country could not stop discussing.
Safdar, the grandson of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, tied the knot Saturday with Shanzeh Ali Rohale, the granddaughter of former Punjab legislator Shaikh Rohale Asghar. The reception was held Sunday.
However, ordinary Pakistanis are angry at the royal wedding. They say it’s like “watching Marie Antoinette cosplay in real time”.
“A country drowning in hunger, malnutrition, unemployment, and zero democracy… yet its rulers are celebrating like French royalty… This is the real two-nation theory today: rulers vs ruled. One Pakistan gets royal stages, imported flowers, designer bags, and Dubai-style excess. The other gets displacement, poverty, inflation, and silence,” read an Instagram post by Pakistani website The Daily Inside.
According to the post, an even bigger problem is the flaunting of wealth. “They don’t even bother hiding it anymore. They flaunt their luxury, their outfits, their new cosmetic surgeries all while the country burns. The monarchy mindset is alive, loud and completely shameless. And honestly? Pakistanis are right to be furious,” read the post.
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Borders & bridals
The groom wore an ivory sherwani with gold buttons from Hassan Sheheryar Yasin, or HSY as Pakistanis call him, paired with a matching pagri (turban) with gold detailing. He apparently repeated the same dress from his first wedding, down to the turban. This is Safdar’s second marriage, more than two years after he divorced his first wife, Ayesha Saif Ur Rehman. He had confirmed the divorce in October 2023. And Pakistanis are all for sustainable re-wedding vibes.
“Who knows. He perhaps decided to save some of the nation’s money,” wrote one Instagram user.
Others are praying Safdar finally settles down. “Junaid ab ghar basa lena, ye awaam mazeed tumhari shadi ka kharcha nahi utha sakti (Junaid, hope you settle down this time, the country is in no position to repeatedly sponsor your wedding),” read an X post.
Then there was the bride, who wore Indian designers Tarun Tahiliani and Sabyasachi and was criticised for choosing Indian labels over Pakistani ones.
“Do they have collective amnesia? We had a war with India… Yet they are getting all their wedding clothes from India,” wrote X user Yumna. Pakistani poet Muhammad Ali replied to the post.
“Borders and patriotism is for the poor. Universal phenomenon…all countries belong to the elite while they belong to none,” Ali wrote.
Glamour Dose, a Pakistani fashion magazine, called her out, noting that in times of heightened tension, clothing is a “political choice”.
A transformation and its cost
Maryam Nawaz herself was the talk of the ceremony, with many saying that she deliberately decked up more than the bride in a bid to overshadow her.
“What is her obsession with dressing as a bride?” wrote one X user. Another said: “Did she not have a proper wedding of her own? There is definitely some trauma there.”
Yet another went further. “Stealing mandate, stealing money from the government, stealing dad’s reputation and stealing bahu’s spotlight. Typically Maryam Nawaz,” read the post.
Marriyum Aurangzeb’s makeover didn’t go unnoticed, either.
“Make marium aurangzeb’s surgeon the mayor of karachi, God knows my city needs a transformation like hers,” Pakistani X user namalumafraad wrote.
When another posted her transformation picture and asked, “What did she eat bhai?”, pat came a reply: “Pakistan.”
On Instagram, her transformation was all the rage. One user, Samavia Salman, made an elaborate video on all the procedural treatments the minister went through to achieve her look. “Can you afford such a transformation? No, because you have not eaten up all of Pakistan,” she said as the video ended.
Even Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif wasn’t spared. One X user commented on a picture of him standing at a corner, calling him “guard chacha”.
Then there were the conspiracy theories. An X account claiming to share bureaucratic news from Pakistan tagged prominent Pakistani journalists and said that Safdar was actually gay and Maryam Nawaz and his former wife knew about it.
Another Instagram blogger pointed out that his current wife was actually part of his previous wedding.
Even Indian commentator Sufi Motiwala praised Maryam Nawaz’s ensemble. Pakistanis are clearly spoilt for choice when it comes to the royal wedding—do they call them traitors for choosing Indian designers? Do they discuss their minister’s transformation, or do they diss the grandeur of a wedding they say is being sponsored on taxpayers’ money? Their answer is all of the above.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)