May 11 babies: Parents name twin sons Nawaz and Shahbaz

Parents want the twins to serve the country as the PML-N leaders are serving.

LAHORE:

May 11 was a critical day for Zahida. She gave birth to twin sons and named them after Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif.

“I was out to cast my ballot when I went into labour and was rushed to the hospital,” Zahida told The Express Tribune. “Our sons were born on the polling day and we want them to have the same fate as the Sharif brothers.”

Last Saturday marked a landmark victory for the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president, whose party garned the most seats in the National Assembly.

“We live in a rented house in Chung area of Lahore,” Zahida said. “We are not affluent, but want our children to prosper.” Naming them after the Sharifs will bring them good fortune, she added.

Apart from Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif, Zahida has two older children.  “We are grateful to God for blessing us with a pair of healthy twins,” said the twins’ emotional father, Siraj.

“I want them to go to school, and later serve the country as Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif are.”

“I hope they are as successful as the Sharif brothers and make us all proud,” he added.

The twins were born at Government Nawaz Sharif Social Security Hospital. “They are normal and healthy babies and weren’t put under special observation,” said a doctor at the hospital. Many people, including other patients at the hospital, visited the twins upon learning that they are named after the PML-N leaders. “People who had come to their own relatives wanted to see the May 11 twins,” said Muhammad Ishaq, an attendant at the hospital.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18^th, 2013.