Captains from around the world renew appeal for medical treatment of Khan

Imran Khan (2023) [AP Photo]

Famous cricketers from around the world have renewed their appeal for the medical treatment of former star player turned politician Imran Khan in a letter to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

A group of 22 former international cricket captains, including Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev of India and Australian greats Greg Chappell and Ian Chappell, signed a second such letter to the Pakistan prime minister within six months.

The latest appeal comes days after Khan was taken to a government hospital in the capital for a medical examination. The examination was conducted in the presence of one of his sisters, and Khan was then returned to Adiala prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. Doctors declared him 100% medically fit.

However, the group of cricket greats questioned the procedure of Khan’s medical checkup.

“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 cricketers said in a letter.

“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.”

Khan, 73, led Pakistan to the 1992 Cricket World Cup title and later served as prime minister from 2018 until his ouster in 2022.

The 22 former national team captains said they don’t seek to adjudicate on Pakistan’s domestic legal process and had written to the prime minister “not as politicians, but as former colleagues and rivals (of Khan) who share a bond forged on the cricket field.”

In February, 14 former international cricketers expressed their concern over Khan’s health after his family said he had lost about 85% of the vision in his right eye, a claim disputed by the government. Authorities later said his condition was improving following treatment.

Khan’s lawyers and family have also accused the government of defying a court order that required him to be examined at the private Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad. Pakistan’s government rejected the allegations over the weekend, saying Khan was examined by doctors from the private hospital and that he could not be taken to Shifa International for security reasons.

The government said Khan’s supporters had begun gathering outside the private hospital in violation of the court order, which required them to stay away from the medical facility to avoid inconveniencing other patients.

The government has also rejected allegations from Khan’s family that he was being subjected to “cruelty, mental torture, punitive solitary confinement and medical neglect.”

Khan is not being held under a government order but as a “convicted prisoner” serving sentences imposed by courts following judicial proceedings, the Ministry of Information said in a written response to The Associated Press last Friday.

The ministry also rejected allegations that Khan was being held in solitary confinement or denied meaningful contact with his family. It said Khan had received more than 900 visits from family members, lawyers, doctors, political representatives, and other approved visitors since his imprisonment in 2023. RIZWAN ALI & MUNIR AHMED, ISLAMABAD, MDT/AP