Former cricket captains ask Pakistan to ensure ‘adequate medical care’ for Imran Khan

A group of former cricket captains, including Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar and one of England’s longest-serving captains Sir Alastair Cook, have called on Pakistan to ensure that their former prime minister Imran Khan receives adequate care while in custody.

The cricketer-turned-politician has been in prison since 2023 on corruption charges which he denies.

In a letter to Pakistan’s current leader Shehbaz Sharif, the 21 former captains expressed concern that Khan, 73, was allowed “only a few hours” in a hospital last week where he was examined by a state-appointed team.

Khan’s party also filed a contempt petition against the government for not giving him access to his own doctors, as ordered by the high court.

The former cricket captains set out three demands in their letter, the first of which is that Khan be assessed by a medical board run by Pakistan’s Supreme Court – which would include his personal doctors – particularly in relation to the loss of vision in his right eye.

They also urged authorities to allow weekly visits by Khan’s family, as ordered by the court, “without interruptions or administrative delays.”

Finally, they asked that any treatment recommended by the medical board be “provided without delay.”

“Imran Khan is 73 years old and has already been in custody for more than three years,” reads the letter initiated by former Australian captain Greg Chappell.

“Whatever the legal and political arguments surrounding his case, the basic decency of ensuring that a court-ordered medical process is actually completed is not, in our view, a controversial request.”

Among the other signatories were the Englishmen Michael Atherton, Michael Brearley, Nasser Hussain, Andrew Strauss and David Gower, the Indians Kapil Dev and Dilip Vengsarkar, and the Australians Belinda Clark, Adam Gilchrist, Steve Waugh and Kim Hughes.

Fourteen of the former captains had also supported an earlier request for “humane treatment and adequate medical care” for Khan, submitted in February.

Khan’s lawyer claimed at the time that his client had 15% vision remaining in his right eye. after prison authorities failed to take action.

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

Khan, who previously captained the Pakistan national cricket team, served as Prime Minister of Pakistan from 2018 to 2022.

He was jailed in August 2023 and has faced charges in more than 100 cases, ranging from leaking state secrets to selling state gifts, all of which he and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party say are politically motivated.

His imprisonment sparked large-scale protests by his supporters, which were repressed by the authorities.

On Tuesday, Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered the government to shift Khan to a private hospital to be examined by doctors.

Instead, he was treated by doctors at a government-run hospital in Islamabad, who deemed him “medically fit,” before returning to prison.