Pakistan’s Punjab CM Maryam Nawaz is having her queen moment. She is now being compared to Marie Antoinette in Pakistan. However, it is more in anger than in admiration after the PLM (N) leader decided to treat schoolchildren with McDonald’s burgers and crispy fries.
Now she is being called ‘thoughtless, mindless’ and tone-deaf for choosing to sponsor McDonalds’ meals as many people in Pakistan, and across the world, have been boycotting the American fast food chain in solidarity with Palestine after they offered free meals to the Israeli military. However, Maryam’s party defended her gesture calling it thoughtful. The PML (N) even promoted it on X.
But the party deleted the post after the backlash that saw outraged Pakistanis attacking the leader with sarcasm. In the now-deleted video, schoolchildren were seen munching on burgers.
“This is the school where Maryam Nawaz went yesterday and sent McDonalds’ burgers to the girls today, which we are boycotting because of the massacre of innocent children by Israel in Gaza. What message is this government giving?” an X user wrote.
If she thought she was being innovative, so was the criticism against her.
She is now being called a modern-day Marie Antoinette, her act of treating children to fast food is being compared to Antoinette’s ‘let them eat cake’ moment.
“Maryam nawaz IS the marie antoinette of Pakistan. Extremely wealthy due to no personal skill but just a royal background. Extravagancy over the top with no awareness of the suffering of the poor. More care for her image than others. Hope she meets the same end (public beheading) (sic),” one Reddit user wrote.
While Reddit users likened Nawaz to Antoinette, others were not so regal in their criticism.
“Only if brainlessness had a face it would be them,” an Instagram user wrote under a post by a media organisation People Pakistan. An X user added, “This is the IQ level of Maryam Nawaz and they have handed her the biggest province of Pakistan on a plate. Children in Gaza are dying and she thought it was a good idea to use McDonald’s for her PR, especially using children.”
Amid Nawaz’s ‘Burgergate’ moment, users also had other questions: Why McDonald’s? Couldn’t Maryam Nawaz have chosen a more politically correct option, like supporting local restaurants?
An Instagram user commented, “Why not buy food from local restaurants to support the economy, local workers and Palestine?”
But it seems like McDonald’s holds a special place in the Nawaz family’s heart—and stomach.
In 2018, Nawaz Sharif ate McDonald’s burgers and soft drinks for lunch during a court hearing. “Nawaz was seen in a good mood after gobbling up the burgers,” the report stated.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)