We appeal again for Imran as former colleagues and rivals, say ex-captains

Six months after their first appeal in February, 22 former international captains came together again at the initiative of Greg Chappell to renew their appeal for the medical treatment of Imran Khan following recent developments that they feel fall short of a Supreme Court directive. The joint petition, released to the media has three Indian signatories: Sunil Gavaskar, known to be a good friend of Imran, Kapil Dev and Dilip Vengsarkar.

The letter makes three specific requests: the medical board directed by Supreme Court, including Khan’s own doctors, may be permitted to complete a full and independent assessment of his health – particularly the reported loss of vision in his right eye; family visits reinstated by the court be honoured without recommendation or delay and treatment recommended for him be provided without delay.

‘’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 letter to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif says. ‘’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.’’

The latest letter is the former captains’ second appeal to Sharif in six months after 14 of them made the appeal. The signatories, significantly, describe themselves as writing ‘’not as politicians, but as former colleagues and rivals who share a bond forged on the cricket field,’’ are makes no plea to seek any adjudication in Pakistan’s domestic legal processes. No former Pakistan captain, incidentally, is a part of the appeal.

Khan, who served as Pakistan’s prime minister from 2018 to 2022, was sentenced to a slew of prison sentences after his removal from the top office for sentences of 10, 14 and 17 years. Ahead of the 2024 elections, he was also sentenced to seven years in prison for getting married to his current wife without waiting an appropriate period of time after her divorce.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Federation of Human Rights are among the organisations to have expressed concern over the fairness of his trial and his condition in prison. His sons have alleged that Imran remains in a death cell where he has been subjected to psychological torture – a charge denied repeatedly by the Pakistan government.

List of signatories

Michael Atherton, Alex Blackwell, Allan Border, Michael Brearley, Greg Chappell, Ian Chappell, Belinda Clark, Alastair Cook, Michael Gatting, Sunil Gavaskar, Lee Germon, Adam Gilchrist, David Gower, Kim Hughes, Nasser Hussain, Clive Lloyd, Kapil Dev, Arjuna Ranatunga, Andrew Strauss, Dilip Vengsarkar, Steve Waugh & John Wright.