‘This isn’t politics’: Brian Lara backs Imran Khan, calls for dignity and proper care

The sons of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan have expressed grave concerns over their father's wellbeing and the potential threat to his life while in custody. Sulaiman and Kasim Khan have criticized the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Mohsin Naqvi following accusations that the board threatened to withdraw the Pakistan cricket team from the Lord's Test against England.

The controversy erupted during the second Test at Lord's when Sky Sports aired an interview conducted by the brothers with Sulaiman and Kasim, during which they discussed their father's health and situation in prison.

The brothers allege that PCB threatened to withhold the team's participation in the post-lunch session on the first day unless the interview was removed from air. Sulaiman stated, "They're clearly hoping to kill him in there. They want to silence him as secretly as possible and slowly make him fade into nothing." Kasim further accused the PCB of damaging its reputation by making "absolute fools of themselves" in their response to the interview.

Kasim and Sulaiman also raised concerns about their father's solitary confinement in Pakistan. Kasim claimed, "If we speak, their strategy is to let everything fizzle out and then impose more brutal restrictions that make it even harder for him to survive." Sulaiman expressed surprise at the PCB's reaction to an interview about their father, stating, "I didn't think they would be so tactless as to threaten not to take to the field."

Pakistani authorities have denied claims of mistreatment and maintain that Khan is receiving proper medical care. However, Sulaiman expressed skepticism about these assurances, questioning the transparency of the government's claims and the lack of access to information about his father's condition. He suggested that the family was being fed "hearsay from government sources" and accused the authorities of pretending to help him while planning something worse.

Sulaiman noted the lack of transparency and the absence of access to the family, raising doubts about the veracity of the information provided by the authorities.