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

Twenty-one former cricket captains, among them Michael Atherton, Allan Border, Sunil Gavaskar, Adam Gilchrist, Kapil Dev, and Steve Waugh, have penned a letter to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The letter urges the government to ensure the fulfillment of a Supreme Court-directed medical examination for former Prime Minister Imran Khan and to honor directives regarding his family visits. This is the second appeal from the former captains, following an earlier call by 14 of their peers six months ago.

The signatories of the letter joined seven additional former captains, citing recent developments regarding Imran's medical assessment. The letter cites a reported Supreme Court order directing Imran to be transferred to a hospital for examination by a medical board, which should include his personal physicians and his sister, Dr Uzma Khan.

The captains welcome the reported reinstatement of weekly family visits, but express concern over Imran's brief hospital stay, which ended with him being returned to Adiala Jail after being declared medically fit by a state-appointed medical team.

The former captains note that Imran's family and legal team argue that the process fell short of the Supreme Court's directives, as the medical board as envisioned by the court was not granted sufficient time to complete its assessment. They stress that they do not intend to decide Pakistan's domestic legal matters, emphasizing their appeal is made to ensure humane treatment and proper medical care for Imran Khan.

The 21 former captains ask the government to permit the court-directed medical board, including Imran's personal doctors, to carry out a "full and independent assessment" of his health, especially considering his reported loss of vision in his right eye. They also call for the continuous implementation of weekly family visits and assert that any medical recommendations following the assessment should be implemented without delay.

The former captains believe that irrespective of legal and political arguments surrounding Imran's case, the basic requirement to complete the court-ordered medical process humanely is not controversial.