Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Monday issued a legal notice to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, demanding a public apology for Khan's allegation that he was offered a Rs10 billion bribe by a close associate of CM Punjab to drop the Panama case against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

In the events following the Panama case verdict, the PTI chief, while addressing a gathering, had alleged that a mutual acquaintance of his and Shahbaz Sharif's offered him the exorbitant sum on the condition that he drop the case against the Sharif family.

Despite stirring up a hornet's nest, Khan has yet to reveal the identity of the individual who offered the bribe, although he has insisted that the person lives in Lahore and that he will reveal his identity in court.

The notice, issued by Advocate Khawaja Haris Ahmad on behalf of the Punjab CM, states that the "maliciously false" claims of the Rs10bn bribe are "utterly unjustified and inexcusable".

The notice served to the PTI chief today calls for a publicly broadcast apology for allegedly defaming the chief minister within 14 days or Sharif's lawyer will initiate legal action for the recovery of Rs10bn in damages.

"In terms of Section 8 of the Defamation Ordinance 2002, if within 14 days of the receipt of this legal notice you do not tender a proper apology to my client and get the same published through print and electronic media in the same manner and with the same prominence as the publication of the defamatory statement and representation made by [Khan] against my client, I have clear instructions from my client to initiate on his behalf legal action against you, inter alia, for the recovery of a sum of Rs10bn as damages under the Ordinance on account of the defamation committed by you," the notice reads.

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