Ex-cricket captains urge ‘proper medical care’ for Imran Khan
A group of 21 former international cricket captains, including Sir Alastair Cook, Sunil Gavaskar and Greg Chappell, have written to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif urging that jailed ex-prime minister Imran Khan receive proper medical care. Khan, 73, has been imprisoned since August 2023 on corruption charges he denies, and concerns have grown over his health, including reported vision loss in his right eye. The intervention highlights ongoing tension between Pakistan's courts, which have ordered specific medical provisions for Khan, and the government, which his party accuses of obstructing access to his own doctors.
The letter's three demands are that Khan be assessed by a Supreme Court-directed medical board including his personal physicians, that his family be allowed uninterrupted weekly visits as previously ordered by the court, and that any recommended treatment be provided without delay. It follows an earlier appeal in February also signed by several of the same former captains, after Khan's lawyer claimed he had only 15% vision remaining in his right eye. Despite a court order this week to transfer Khan to a private hospital, he was instead examined at a government-run hospital in Islamabad and declared "medically fit" before being returned to prison, prompting a contempt petition from his party.
- 21 ex-cricket captains urge Pakistan to give Imran Khan proper medical care
- Khan, 73, jailed since 2023, reportedly losing vision in right eye
- Court ordered private hospital transfer, but he saw government doctors instead
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Imran Khan, Pakistan's former prime minister and one-time captain of its cricket team, has been in prison since August 2023 after being convicted on corruption charges, which he denies. His party says the case against him was politically motivated, part of a wider crackdown since he was removed from power in 2022. Concerns have been mounting over the 73-year-old's health while in custody, including reports that he has lost much of the sight in one eye.
Pakistan's Supreme Court has previously ordered that Khan be given access to his own doctors and regular family visits, but his party accuses the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of restricting this. The dispute reflects a longer-running standoff between Pakistan's judiciary, which has at times ruled in Khan's favour, and the government, which his supporters say is trying to keep him sidelined from politics.
The involvement of former international cricket captains, including England's Sir Alastair Cook and India's Sunil Gavaskar, adds a high-profile international voice to the situation, drawing on Khan's own history as a celebrated cricketer before he entered politics. Their letter is not the first such intervention, and it comes amid continuing disagreement over exactly what medical treatment Khan has received and where.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Supporters of the appeal argue that respecting the Supreme Court's own orders is a matter of basic legal principle, and that credible reports of significant vision loss in a 73-year-old prisoner warrant urgent, independent medical assessment rather than delay. They contend that weekly family visits and access to a patient's own trusted physicians are standard safeguards owed to any prisoner, particularly one whose conviction remains contested, and that failing to honour court-ordered arrangements risks eroding confidence in the rule of law. From this viewpoint, the intervention by former cricket captains is best understood as a humanitarian gesture from respected, largely apolitical figures concerned with due process and welfare, rather than an attempt to influence Pakistan's domestic politics.
The case against
Others would argue that Khan has in fact been examined by hospital doctors and formally declared medically fit, and that Pakistan's health and prison authorities are entitled to rely on their own clinical judgement rather than defer automatically to a prisoner's personally chosen physicians. They may see the repeated high-profile appeals from foreign sporting figures as well-intentioned but risking becoming a vehicle for Khan's party to generate international pressure and sympathy in an ongoing and sensitive legal dispute. From this perspective, decisions about medical care, visitation and hospital transfers are properly matters for Pakistan's courts and prison administration to resolve through their own domestic processes, without being reframed as a global cause before those processes have run their course.