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The rumour mill has been working overtime in Lahore recently, with rumblings of another grand wedding. Word on the street was that Junaid Safdar, son of Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz and grandson of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, was going to marry Shanzeh, the granddaughter of Nawaz’s longtime ally and former member of the National Assembly Sheikh Rohale Asghar.

The rumours proved true on Friday, when Asghar confirmed the news and provided some details of the upcoming festivities. He made the revelation to journalist Shazia Zeeshan.

Explaining the circumstances behind the match, Asghar said his granddaughter was close friends with Junaid’s sister, Mahnoor Safdar, to the point where the girls are often found at each other’s homes. He said he wasn’t sure whether Mahnoor had a hand in picking a match for her brother, but he knew that Shanzeh met his mother frequently, which is probably why Maryam approached his son — Shanzeh’s father — for her hand in marriage.

“When [my son] asked me, I told him it was God’s blessing that our little girl was going to marry into such a prominent family and encouraged him to go through with it,” he said.

After the fateful meeting with the CM, the former MNA said his family was invited by Nawaz Sharif himself, whom he called a gracious host. It was there that the dates were finalised, he said, with events on January 16, 17 and 18.

A joint mehndi and a valima organised by the Sharifs will be held at their Jati Umra estate and a reception will be hosted by the bride’s family at Lahore’s Lake City Golf and Country Club.

A beaming Asghar told the host that Shanzay was the third of his grandchildren to get married in three months. He said he expects it to be grand affair with all the proper pomp and circumstance.

For Junaid, this is his second marriage after he married Ayesha Saif Khan — daughter of Saifur Rehman Khan, a former chairman of the National Accountability Bureau — in 2021. Their wedding was opulent, with a swanky London nikah followed by over a week of merrymaking through six events in Lahore and Islamabad.

The pair split up in 2023 with Junaid announcing the divorce on Instagram in October of that year.