Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif announced on Monday that she will send a defamation notice to Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Chaudhary Salik Hussain over his allegations of corruption in the province. She warned that she would take him to court if he could not produce evidence to support his claims. The announcement was made in Attock, where she was addressing a ceremony to distribute laptops and Honhaar merit scholarships at COMSTATS University.
Maryam said Salik, the son of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) President Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain, had claimed that cupboards in Punjab were stuffed with money earned through corruption. She quoted the federal minister as saying he had no evidence, but that Punjab was full of such cupboards. “I am sending him a defamation notice today,” she said.
Maryam rejects Salik’s corruption claims against Punjab
The chief minister said she could swear an oath that not a single rupee of public money had been misused under her government. She asked why Salik remained part of the federal government if he believed Punjab’s administration was corrupt. She also referred to his reported praise for the government of former chief minister Pervez Elahi and challenged him to back up his allegations.
Maryam said her government had carried out development projects worth trillions of rupees, with some individual schemes costing as much as Rs300 billion. She rejected claims that public funds had been diverted through corruption.
Laptops and scholarships to remove barriers for Attock students
Speaking at the ceremony, Maryam praised students from Attock for their academic achievements despite limited resources. She said the laptop and Honhaar scholarship schemes were meant to ensure that financial hardship did not stop talented young people from continuing their studies. She pledged that no deserving student would be denied an education because their family could not afford the necessary resources.
She said students would no longer need to rely on college and university computer laboratories to complete assignments because they lacked personal devices. Maryam also directed Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat to urgently resolve transport problems faced by students, particularly women, at the University of Engineering and Technology (UET). She said the province was providing free rides through its Green Bus service and planned to distribute 100,000 electric bikes, with pink bikes for female students and black bikes for male students. The government was also working to improve security so women could travel independently without facing harassment, she added.
Attock roads, schools and housing schemes outlined
Maryam said around 850 kilometres of roads had been constructed in Attock over the past two years, and that the district had also received Green Buses and new bus stands. She listed several other projects in the district and across Punjab:
- 300 Nawaz Sharif Schools of Eminence being established across the province, with air-conditioned classrooms, computer, artificial intelligence and science laboratories, and no fees for children from low-income families
- Around 250,000 houses being built under the Apni Chhat Apna Ghar housing programme for people who cannot afford to construct their own homes
- A new sewerage and drainage system and underground water storage tanks to address waterlogging during rainfall in Attock
- Free medicines and surgeries at public hospitals, alongside efforts to improve healthcare facilities
Maryam criticises Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s former government
The chief minister also criticised the former government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, saying development had stalled once Punjab’s administrative boundary ended. She said students from KP had benefited from Punjab’s Honhaar scholarships and laptop schemes and had wanted to attend the Attock ceremony. Maryam questioned why provinces that had been in power for 15 years had not provided comparable laptops, scholarships, colleges, universities and public transport.
She said her government was focused on resolving people’s problems rather than blaming previous administrations for existing shortcomings.
