Ex-cricket captains urge PM Shehbaz to honour SC orders on Imran Khan’s treatment

Twenty-one former international cricket captains, including Michael Atherton, Allan Border, Sunil Gavaskar, Adam Gilchrist, Kapil Dev and Steve Waugh, have written to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, urging the government to ensure the completion of a Supreme Court-directed medical assessment of former prime minister Imran Khan and honour orders regarding his family visits. In a letter dated August 23, the former captains said they were writing for a second time regarding Imran’s medical treatment and welfare, following an earlier appeal by 14 former international captains six months ago. The signatories said they were joined by seven additional former captains after what they described as recent developments concerning Imran’s medical examination. Referring to a reported Supreme Court order, the former cricket captains said Imran had been directed to be transferred to a hospital for examination by a medical board, which was to include his personal physicians and his sister, Dr Uzma Khan. They also welcomed the reported reinstatement of weekly family visits. However, the former captains expressed concern that Imran’s hospital stay reportedly lasted only a few hours before he was returned to Adiala Jail after being examined by a state-appointed medical team and declared medically fit. They said Imran’s family and legal team had maintained that the process fell short of the Supreme Court’s directions, as the medical board envisaged by the court had not been allowed to complete its assessment. “We do not presume to adjudicate Pakistan’s domestic legal processes. That is not our place, ” the letter said, adding that the appeal was made in the spirit of ensuring humane treatment and proper medical care. The 21 former captains urged the government to allow the court-directed medical board, including Imran’s personal doctors, to conduct a “full and independent assessment” of his health, particularly in view of the reported loss of vision in his right eye. They also called for the uninterrupted implementation of weekly family visits and said that any medical treatment recommended following the assessment should be provided without delay. “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, ” the former captains said. The letter was signed by former captains Michael Atherton, Alex Blackwell, Allan Border, Michael Brearley, Greg Chappell, Ian Chappell, Belinda Clark, Alastair Cook, Sunil Gavaskar, Lee Germon, Adam Gilchrist, David Gower, Kim Hughes, Nasser Hussain, Clive Lloyd, Kapil Dev, Arjuna Ranatunga, Andrew Strauss, Dilip Vengsarkar, Steve Waugh and John Wright.

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