Cricket Legends Appeal For 'Proper Medical Care' For Imran Khan

By Shakir Husain

HYDERABAD, Aug 24 (Bernama) -- A host of former international cricket captains from around the globe, including some of the sport’s biggest names, have appealed to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to ensure cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan receives "proper medical care" amid concern over his health.

The former cricket stars, citing a bond forged on the field with Imran, who led Pakistan to victory in the 1992 Cricket World Cup, made the appeal in a letter dated Aug 23 addressed to Shehbaz.

The 21 signatories include West Indies cricket legend Clive Lloyd, India's Kapil Dev and Dilip Vengsarkar, Sri Lanka's Arjuna Ranatunga, Australia’s Adam Gilchrist, Steve Waugh and Kim Hughes, as well as former England captains Michael Atherton, Michael Brearley, Nasser Hussain, Andrew Strauss and David Gower.

"Whatever the legal and political arguments surrounding his case, the basic decency of ensuring a court-ordered medical process is actually completed is not, in our view, a controversial request," the cricketers said in the letter.

They requested that the medical board directed by the Supreme Court, including Imran's own doctors, "be permitted to complete a full and independent assessment of his health, particularly the reported loss of vision in his right eye".

They also requested that the weekly family visits, reinstated by the court, “be allowed without interruption or administrative delay.”

Imran, founder of the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), who has been jailed since August 2023, was moved back to prison early on Friday within hours of undergoing a medical examination at the state-run Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).

Pakistan's Supreme Court had on Aug 18 ordered that the former prime minister be transferred from Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad, a private medical facility.

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the decision to take Imran to PIMS was taken due to a "security situation" for which he blamed PTI members.

Imran, who was removed from power in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence in April 2022, has faced a series of legal cases and been convicted in several of them. He has maintained that the cases against him are politically motivated.

-- BERNAMA