Azma Bokhari challenges Chaudhry Salik to quit ministry: ‘Resign and go home if you cannot answer the notice’
File photo: Federal Minister Chaudhry Salik Hussain (right) at an event in Dubai in February 2026 (Wikimedia Commons) — not from today's events.
LAHORE: Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari has challenged federal minister Chaudhry Salik Hussain to resign from the cabinet if he cannot answer Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s defamation notice, saying a week has passed without a reply and that he should stop lecturing on television and take his place on the opposition benches instead.
‘Corruption charge and a demand for funds’
In a statement on Wednesday, Bokhari accused Salik of practising “hypocritical politics” — alleging corruption in the Punjab government while seeking development funds from the very same government. His remarks, she said, suggested he had “lost his senses”, and he was talking less like a member of the Chaudhry family and more like someone picking a street fight. Drawing a parallel with Moonis Elahi, she said the family’s long tradition of dignified politics had been damaged by two “incompetent youngsters”.
Salik hits back
Salik, for his part, told Geo News that Bokhari’s outburst had wrecked an attempt to patch things up. He said he had explained the context of his interview to Federal Information Minister Attaullah Tarar before a Punjab minister “spoiled the matter” with a public attack. Neither Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif nor any other senior PML-N leader had contacted the PML-Q about the row, he complained, adding that he would contest Maryam’s Rs5 billion defamation suit in court and would not withdraw his statement.
Alone at the cabinet table
Salik attended Wednesday’s federal cabinet meeting, but none of his fellow ministers raised the dispute with him, according to reports. Rana Sanaullah, an aide to the prime minister on political affairs, said Salik’s remarks reflected the “bad company” he had been keeping. At the heart of the row is Salik’s allegation that corruption is rife in Punjab and that his home district of Gujrat is being starved of the development funds it received under Pervez Elahi. The PML-Q holds two ministries in the coalition — Salik in the federal cabinet and his elder brother Shafay Hussain in Punjab’s — and Shafay has so far kept his counsel.
