Despite Akhtar's later retracting his claims and also issuing an unconditional apology for "any grief or embarrassment that may have been caused to the nation, particularly to the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf", Ashraf's legal counsel filed a Rs 220 million (approx US$3.37 million) defamation suit against Akhtar in a civil court in Lahore on 2 May.