21 former Test and international captains from around the world have written another letter to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif demanding medical examination and proper treatment of former Pakistan captain and former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
According to cricket website Cricinfo, the former captains said in the letter that the Supreme Court had directed Imran Khan to be shifted to a hospital for medical examination and to be examined by a medical board that would include his personal doctors and sister Dr Uzma Khan, while weekly family meetings were also restored.
The letter expressed concern that Imran Khan’s stay in the hospital was limited to only a few hours and that he was examined by a government-appointed team instead of the Supreme Court-directed medical board, which declared him medically fit and shifted him back to Adiala Jail.
The former captains have made three demands, including allowing the medical board to conduct a full and independent examination of Imran Khan, especially his alleged vision loss in his right eye, as ordered by the Supreme Court, ensuring uninterrupted weekly family meetings and providing immediate treatment recommended on the basis of the medical examination.
The signatories to the letter include Michael Atherton, Alex Blackwell, Allan Border, Michael Brearley, Greg Chappell, Ian Chappell, Belinda Clarke, Alastair Cook, Michael Gatting, Sunil Gavaskar, Lee Germain, Adam Gilchrist, David Gower, Kim Hughes, Nasser Hussain, Clive Lloyd, Kapil Dev, Arjuna Ranatunga, Andrew Strauss, Dilip Vengsarkar, Steve Waugh and John Wright.
The former captains made it clear that they were making this appeal not as politicians but as former colleagues and rivals of Imran Khan in the field of cricket and did not intend to interfere in the internal legal affairs of Pakistan.
It should be noted that this is the second letter to the Prime Minister from former world captains in six months. In February this year, 14 former captains had also expressed concern over Imran Khan’s health and reports of alleged vision loss in one eye.