RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) member and former MNA Mohammad Hanif Abbasi sent a defamation notice seeking one billion rupees in damages to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday.

The PML-N leader alleged that the PTI chairman had been spreading "slanderous propaganda" against him. He also maintained that Imran Khan, during his speeches, had called Abbasi a 'drug pusher'.

Abbasi sent the legal notice to Imran through his counsel Ghulam Mustafa Kidwal.

The PTI chairman has been asked to submit his response within two weeks in this regard.

Hanif Abbasi, who has recently been promoted as the Chairman Metro Bus Project Committee, can emerge as a strong contender for the NA-56 constituency in Rawalpindi, once Imran Khan’s resignation is accepted from the seat. Imran Khan had won the vote from the constituency in the general elections 2013.

Abbasi, his brother and five employees of his Grey Pharmaceuticals had also been accused in the past by the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) of misusing 500kg controlled chemical ephedrine and for selling it to narcotics smugglers.