Former captains appeal to Pakistan PM for humane treatment for Imran Khan

Former Australian captain Greg Chappell, with the support of 20 other former international skippers, appealed on Sunday to the Pakistan Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif to provide ‘humane treatment and proper medical care’ for former Pakistan cricket captain and Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The letter is reproduced below:

His Excellency Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Prime Minister’s Office Islamabad, Pakistan

Appeal by 21 Former International Cricket Captains on the Medical Treatment and Welfare of Imran Khan

Dear Prime Minister

Six months ago, fourteen former international cricket captains wrote to you and the Pakistani government appealing for humane treatment and proper medical care for Imran Khan. We wrote then not as politicians, but as former colleagues and rivals who share a bond forged on the cricket field — one that transcends the borders and disputes that too often divide countries.

We write again now — joined by seven further former captains — because of what has reportedly just occurred. Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered that Imran Khan be transferred to hospital for examination by a medical board that was to include his own personal physicians and his sister, Dr. Uzma Khan. The Court also reinstated weekly family visits. These were very welcome steps.

Concerningly, Mr. Khan’s hospital stay lasted only a few hours. He was examined by a state-appointed team rather than the board the Court had directed, declared “medically fit,” and returned to Adiala Jail before that board could complete its work. His family and legal team say this falls short of what the Court ordered.

We do not presume to adjudicate Pakistan’s domestic legal processes. That is not our place, and it was not the spirit in which we wrote in February. But we do ask, again, respectfully:

1. That the medical board directed by the Supreme Court — including Mr. Khan’s own doctors — be permitted to complete a full and independent assessment of his health, particularly the reported loss of vision in his right eye.

2. That the weekly family visits reinstated by the Court be honoured without interruption or administrative delay.

3. That whatever the outcome of that medical assessment, the treatment recommended by it be provided without delay. Imran Khan is 73 years old and has now spent more than three years in custody. 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.

It is one we believe every nation that plays this game would recognise as fair. We hope this matter can be resolved expeditiously and with the dignity Mr. Imran Khan deserves.

Yours in cricket,

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 Nikhanj, Arjuna Ranatunga, Andrew Strauss, Dilip Vengsarkar, Stephen Waugh, John Wright.