British publication Daily Mail apologised on Thursday to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for leveling false allegations of corruption against him in an article published in 2019, saying that it has withdrawn the allegation against the premier and his son-in-law, Imran Ali Yousaf.

The publication also shared a clarification on its website saying they accept Shebaz Sharif had never been accused by the National Accountability Bureau of any wrongdoing in relation to British public money or DFID grant aid.

“In an article concerning Mr Shahbaz Sharif entitled ‘Did the family of Pakistani politician who has become the poster boy for British overseas aid STEAL funds meant for earthquake victims’ published on 14 July 2019 we reported on an investigation by Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau into Mr Sharif and suggested that the money under investigation included a not insubstantial sum of British public money that had been paid to the Punjab province in DFID grant aid,” it said.

In 2019, the British publication accused PM Shehbaz of “embezzling tens of millions of pounds of public money and laundering it in Britain”. Shahbaz Sharif was the Punjab chief minister at the time when the alleged embezzlement took place.

The report, quoting Pakistani investigators, claimed that “some of the allegedly stolen money came from DFID-funded aid projects”.

“Legal documents allege that Shahbaz’s son-in-law received about £1 million from a fund established to rebuild the lives of earthquake victims – to which DFID gave £54 million from UK taxpayers,” the report had alleged.

Following the publication of the article, PM Shahbaz filed a case against the Daily Mail and its journalist David Rose.

The PML-N chief had demanded damages in his lawsuit calling the Daily Mail’s allegations false and propaganda.