New Delhi: Pakistan is submerged in floods and the one thing citizens can’t get enough of is Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s PR game. As floodwaters rise, so does the outrage over the PML(N) leader’s handling.
First, Maryam Nawaz embarked on a helicopter tour across Punjab this week, flanked by none other than her uncle, PM Shehbaz Sharif. Then she made disaster and relief personnel travelling in a boat chant her name. If that wasn’t enough, she told reporters the cause of the torrential rains was the rain itself.
Pakistanis are calling it a flood PR disaster — she has been labelled Pakistan’s Marie Antoinette.
Over a million people have been evacuated from their homes in Punjab this week, making this one of the worst floods in four decades.
Three major rivers have overflowed due to torrential monsoon rains and the release of excess water from India’s dams, flooding hundreds of villages and devastating vital grain crops. In several cases, authorities had no choice but to intentionally breach riverbanks to redirect water flows, only spreading the destruction further, according to Punjab’s disaster management authority, Reuters reported.
While the people of Punjab wade through knee-deep waters, the narrative surrounding Maryam Nawaz’s flood response has taken on a life of its own. What was meant to be a demonstration of leadership and care has been reinterpreted as tone-deaf, narcissistic political theater.
Critics also noted nuances in the visuals of the helicopter ride. While Maryam is carrying an ipad, “yet since yesterday the authorities are relying on paper maps & she’s learning like a schoolkid.”
Soon, the discussion shifted to whether she should be called Marie Antoinette at all.
When one X user wrote, “Kindly don’t insult Maria Antoinette, she was actually a very educated and astute woman”, another quipped: “I prefer the term wicked witch of east”.
One person on X, Malik Aamir Shahid, dealt the final salvo: “Let them buy boats.”
‘Rock bottom of narcissism’
The internet could not keep calm looking at the visuals showing Nawaz supporters — travelling metres away in a separate boat from the CM’s — chanting “Maryam Nawaz Zindabad”.
Pakistani X user Tayyaba wrote, “At what stage of megalomania do you tell your media team to chant your slogans in a river amid floods?”
Another added: “Every time I think this is rock bottom of narcissism and she can’t possibly sink any lower, she somehow manages to out-vile herself…”
Selene was blunt: “This woman needs help. She isn’t normal. This isn’t normal. What a narcissistic psychopath.”
An angry X user, Haider, agreed, “This is some pathological level of self-projection, or the ingrained disease of narcissism. I am convinced that this family has some serious psychiatric issues that they can even find or enjoy this level of self-projection with deadbodies of people around (sic).”
Also read: Godman steps in to ‘end’ floods in Pakistan. People say ‘still better than Maryam Nawaz’
Pakistan, politicians, and their gaffes
The final blow came during a media briefing on Thursday, when Maryam Nawaz offered an explanation for the deluge: “Aap ne note kiya hou ga baarish ki wajah se torrential rains hoyi hain.”
The internet exploded. One Pakistani sarcastically said, “Someone alert the Nobel Committee. We have found the winner of this year’s Physics prize.”
Another noted how this is a recurring pattern with Pakistani politicians.
“‘Bilawal: “Jab barish aati hai to paani aata hai.’ Maryam: ‘Baarish ki wajah se torrential rains hui hain.’ When politics is family property, you get leaders who explain rain like nursery kids. And we wonder why the whole country drowns every monsoon”.
There was no stopping Pakistanis. Tahira, on X, had an explanation: “She forgot her script at home just like bilawal”
Another user then mixed the two and said: “Baarish ata hai toh torrential rains ata hai, zayada baarish ata hai to zayada torrential rains ata hai”.
However, the irony was not lost on the citizens who are battling the deluge. One X user summed up the sentiment:
“After ‘baarish hoti hai tou paani aata hai,’ we got ‘baarish ki wajah se torrential rains.’ This will pass as a joke, but it is an absolute disaster that uneducated, unelected people are ruling while more than half of the country suffers from some of the worst floods.”
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)