Cricket greats appeal to PM Shehbaz for Imran's medical treatment in line with SC directives

Twenty-two international cricketers, including 21 ex-captains, have written a letter to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, making an appeal for ex-Pakistani premier Imran Khan’s medical treatment in line with recent Supreme Court directives, ESPN Cricinfo reported on Sunday.

On August 18, the Supreme Court directed the government to move Imran to Islamabad’s Shifa International Hospital, a private facility, within two days for examination and treatment by a multidisciplinary medical board.

However, it later turned out that Imran was instead taken to the government-run Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims).

Meanwhile, it was also reported that he could not undergo a recommended computed tomography angiography (CTA) at Pims as the required facilities were unavailable at the hospital.

The letter written by the 22 ex-cricketers and cited by ESPN Cricinfo stated: “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.”

However, the former cricketers noted, Imran’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 letter claimed, according to ESPN Cricinfo.

The former cricketers called for:

• Permitting the medical board directed by the Supreme Court — including Imran’s own doctors — to complete a full and independent assessment of his health, particularly the reported loss of vision in his right eye.
• Honouring the weekly family visits reinstated by the court without interruption or administrative delay
• Providing the recommended treatment to Imran without delay following the outcome of his medical assessment

The letter’s signatories included 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 and John Wright.

In their appeal, they said they were writing “not as politicians, but as former colleagues and rivals who share a bond forged on the cricket field“ and that they did not seek to adjudicate Pakistan’s domestic legal processes.

Several of these cricketers had called on the authorities in February as well, expressing “deep concern” about Imran’s treatment and prison conditions. The cricket greats had urged the Pakistan government to ensure immediate and adequate medical attention, dignified treatment, and unhindered access to legal processes for Imran.

Imran has been in jail since August 2023, convicted in a string of cases that he says were politically driven following his ouster in a 2022 parliamentary vote.

There has been much ado over his health in recent months, with him having been taken to the hospital multiple times for an eye ailment — right central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) — that came to light in late January.

Meanwhile, his party, the PTI, and the government have been engaged in a blame game, with the former accusing the latter of a lack of transparency in not ensuring appropriate treatment for Imran.