Photos: Wikimedia Commons (Maryam Nawaz, 2019 portrait; Chaudhry Salik Hussain, PID handout photograph, Geneva, 2025).
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has sent a Rs5 billion defamation notice to Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Chaudhry Salik Hussain over allegations of corruption against her government, demanding that he retract his remarks and apologise.
The row began on the ARY News talk show on Monday, 2 November 2026, hosted by Naeem Ashraf Butt. During the interview, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leader praised former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi’s tenure from 2002 to 2007, and alleged that political considerations were increasingly influencing development priorities and the allocation of public funds, making sweeping allegations of widespread corruption in Punjab.
On Tuesday, Maryam Nawaz responded at a ceremony in Attock, saying she would not bear false allegations of corruption and telling Salik Hussain to bring evidence forward or face court. She also said the reason behind his anger was that she had changed the deputy commissioner of Gujrat a few days earlier, whereas he had wanted a deputy commissioner of his choice appointed. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz also announced the legal move on X, and the notice itself followed on Tuesday.
The notice, issued through Additional Advocate General Punjab Chaudhry Muhammad Nawaz, was also sent to ARY News host Naeem Ashraf Butt and the channel’s chairman, Muhammad Iqbal. It called on the recipients to retract the remarks, publish an unconditional and unequivocal apology and clarification, and remove or suitably correct the portions of the interview in question. It also demanded Rs5 billion in damages.
The notice gave the recipients seven days to comply, warning that failure to do so would lead to legal proceedings, including under the Punjab Defamation Act, 2024. The notice contends that Salik Hussain made sweeping and baseless allegations of widespread corruption in Punjab without providing evidence to substantiate them.
Salik Hussain, meanwhile, has stood by his statement. According to the Express Tribune, he has rejected the suggestion that his remarks were motivated by the change of Gujrat’s deputy commissioner, and has said the interview had been recorded about three weeks earlier. Those points are reported here as Salik Hussain’s position, not as established fact.
No finding is made here on whether corruption occurred: the story is the notice and the competing claims around it.
Sources: Dawn; Express Tribune.