Concerns Over Medical Treatment

Former cricket captains, including Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar and England’s Sir Alastair Cook, have urged Pakistan to provide ex-PM Imran Khan with proper medical care while he is in custody. The ex-PM has been in prison since 2023, facing corruption charges he denies.

In a letter addressed to Pakistan’s current leader, Shehbaz Sharif, 21 former skippers expressed concerns that Khan, 73, was only allowed a few hours at a hospital recently, where he was examined by a state-appointed medical team. Khan’s party has also filed a contempt petition against the government for not allowing him access to his own doctors, as ordered by the top court.

Demands for Medical Assessment

The former skippers outlined three key demands in their letter; the first is that Khan be assessed by a medical board directed by Pakistan’s Supreme Court. This board would include his personal physicians, particularly to address the reported loss of vision in his right eye.

They also called for weekly visits by Khan’s family, as mandated by the court, to be allowed without interruptions or administrative delays; And, they urged that any treatment recommended by the medical board be provided without delay.

“Imran Khan is 73 years old and has now spent more than three years in custody,” the letter read, which was initiated by former Australian captain Greg Chappell. “Whatever the legal and political arguments surrounding his case, the basic decency of ensuring a court-ordered medical process is actually completed is not, in our view, a controversial request.”

Support from International Cricket Figures

Among the signatories were several notable names from cricketing history, including England’s Michael Atherton, Michael Brearley, Nasser Hussain, Andrew Strauss, and David Gower; From India, Kapil Dev and Dilip Vengsarkar added their names, while Australia’s Belinda Clark, Adam Gilchrist, Steve Waugh, and Kim Hughes also signed the letter.

Fourteen of these former skippers had previously supported an earlier appeal for “humane treatment and proper medical care” for Khan, which was submitted in February. At that time, Khan’s lawyer claimed his client had only 15% vision left in his right eye due to a failure by prison authorities to act.

The signatories described themselves as “former colleagues and rivals who share a bond forged on the cricket field,” noting that this bond “transcends the borders and disputes that too often divide countries.”

Imran Khan, who once led the Pakistan national cricket team, served as the country’s prime minister from 2018 to 2022. He was imprisoned in August 2023 and has faced charges in over 100 cases, including allegations of leaking state secrets and selling state gifts, all of which he and his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, deny as politically motivated.

His jailing has sparked large-scale protests by his supporters, which were met with a security operation by authorities. Pakistan’s Supreme Court had recently directed the government to transfer Khan to a private hospital for examination by his physicians. Instead, he was seen by doctors at a government-run hospital in Islamabad, who declared him “medically fit” before he was returned to prison.