Cricket greats press Pakistan on Imran Khan’s health

A group of former international cricket captains has written to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for a second time this year, urging authorities to ensure that former Pakistan captain and prime minister Imran Khan receives the medical assessment and treatment ordered by the country’s apex court. The appeal, initiated by former Australia captain Greg Chappell, follows a brief hospital visit by Khan this week that the former cricketers say did not fulfil the terms of the court's order. The signatories said they were particularly concerned about reports that Khan has suffered a significant loss of vision in his right eye, Cricinfo has reported. The letter was signed by former captains including India's Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Dilip Vengsarkar, Australia's Allan Border, Ian Chappell, Greg Chappell and Steve Waugh, England's Michael Atherton, Alastair Cook, Nasser Hussain and Andrew Strauss, West Indies great Clive Lloyd, Sri Lanka's Arjuna Ranatunga and New Zealand's John Wright. Reports describe the group as 21 former captains, although, one published version of the signatory list contains 22 names. "We write again now, joined by seven further former captains, because of what has reportedly just occurred," the cricketers said in the letter, referring to their earlier appeal in February. They said they were writing ‘not as politicians’ but as former colleagues and rivals who share a bond forged on the cricket field and stressed that they did not intend to intervene in Pakistan's domestic legal proceedings. The latest appeal follows an interim order issued by Supreme Court on August 18 by a three-member bench headed by Justice Shahid Waheed. The court ordered authorities to transfer Khan, 73, from Adiala Jail to Islamabad's Shifa International Hospital within two days for examination and treatment by a multidisciplinary medical board. The board was to include specialists such as an ophthalmologist and cardiologist, while Khan's personal physician, Dr Faisal Sultan, and his sister, Dr Uzma Khan, were to be allowed to remain associated with his medical examination and treatment. The court also ordered the authorities to facilitate regular family contact. Reports on the order said Khan was to be allowed weekly meetings with family members and telephone conversations with his sons. The Supreme Court said the state had a constitutional and legal responsibility to safeguard the life, health, dignity and security of people in custody, noting that imprisonment does not remove a prisoner's entitlement to humane treatment and necessary medical care. The directions were issued as an interim arrangement and the government was told to comply with them "in letter and spirit" until the next hearing. The proceedings followed petitions by Khan's family and supporters seeking access to his personal physicians, family members and medical records, as well as his transfer to a private hospital for treatment. His sister Uzma Khan had separately approached the Supreme Court after an Islamabad High Court ruling rejected a request for his hospitalisation and access to his personal doctors and family. Khan was subsequently taken for a medical examination but was returned to Adiala Jail after only a few hours. His party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has said the government failed to comply with the Supreme Court's direction because Khan was examined at the state-run Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) rather than receiving the comprehensive assessment at Shifa International Hospital envisaged by the court. PTI has also filed a contempt petition over the issue. Government officials have defended the decision, citing security concerns. The government has rejected allegations of medical neglect and mistreatment, saying Khan has undergone numerous medical examinations and that doctors have found him in good health. The former captains' letter, however, says Khan was examined by a state-appointed team, declared "medically fit" and returned to prison before the court-directed medical board could complete its work. His family and legal team have argued that this did not meet the Supreme Court's requirements. The cricketers made three specific requests to Sharif's government: that the medical board ordered by the Supreme Court, including Khan's own doctors, be allowed to complete a full and independent assessment; that weekly family visits be honoured without interruption or administrative delays; and that any treatment recommended by the assessment be provided promptly. They said their principal concern was the reported deterioration of vision in Khan's right eye. "We're not asking Pakistan for anything unusual, just that a court order most countries would take for granted is actually carried out," Chappell said, according to the appeal. The letter is the second such appeal by former international captains this year. In February, 14 former captains, including Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Chappell and Lloyd, wrote to Sharif expressing ‘deep concern’ over Khan's health and prison conditions. They called for adequate medical attention, dignified treatment and access to legal processes. The February appeal came after reports that Khan's eyesight had deteriorated severely while he was held at Adiala Jail. His family and lawyers said at the time that he had lost a substantial proportion of vision in his right eye, while Pakistani officials disputed claims of medical neglect and said his condition had improved. Khan's current eye problem has been described in reports as right central retinal vein occlusion, or CRVO, a condition affecting blood flow in the retina. The issue has been the subject of repeated legal and political disputes over the adequacy of his treatment and access to specialists. Khan, a former international cricket star who led Pakistan to its only men's 50-over World Cup title in 1992, became prime minister in 2018 and was removed from office in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April 2022. He has been imprisoned since August 2023 and has faced convictions in several cases. The former captains said they did not seek to comment on those legal or political disputes. "Whatever the legal and political arguments surrounding his case," they said, ensuring that a court-ordered medical process is completed was a matter of basic decency. "We hope this matter can be resolved expeditiously and with the dignity Mr Imran Khan deserves," they said.