LAHORE (Dunya News) – Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari has accepted Sindh’s senior minister Sharjeel Memon’s challenge, saying, “The place and time will be of your choice, but please come yourself — don’t hide behind a proxy.”
In a fiery statement, Bokhari said Memon’s attempt to play politics over Punjab’s flood victims had flopped. “Now you’ve started another blame game against the Prime Minister,” she remarked, questioning whether the PM had asked Memon to politicize Punjab’s flood relief efforts.
Bokhari didn’t mince her words, accusing PPP leaders, including Bilawal Bhutto, of weakening their own party and the federal government while in power. “Those who can’t maintain peace in their own house are throwing stones at ours,” she said, using the idiom to underline hypocrisy.
She alleged that Memon and his party were conspiring against Punjab. “Whenever Punjab makes progress, you start hatching conspiracies. When asked about your performance, you pull the provincial card,” she said, adding that “playing the South Punjab or BISP card isn’t politics — it’s filth.”
Taking another dig, she said, “Talk about corruption in Karachi’s garbage management or solar panel projects, and you start waving the ethnicity card.” She accused PPP of interfering in Punjab’s matters, saying, “Don’t act innocent now.”
Reacting to Bokhari’s comments, Sindh government spokesman Mustafa Baloch said Punjab should look in the mirror before pointing fingers.
He accused the Punjab government of avoiding local body elections and failing to address flood victims’ problems. “If Punjab really cares about the people, hold local elections and let local representatives solve local problems,” Baloch said.
He added that Sindh’s appreciation for the Prime Minister shouldn’t offend Punjab, saying, “Don’t take out your internal grudges on the PPP or the Sindh government. Fix your own house first.”
Baloch concluded that Sindh doesn’t play the ethnicity game, but “Punjab’s politics of division is a sad state of affairs.”