Sri Lanka’s 1996 World Cup-winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga is among 22 former international captains who have written to Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, renewing an appeal over the medical treatment of jailed former Pakistan captain Imran Khan.

The letter, initiated by former Australia captain Greg Chappell, says a Supreme Court directive on Khan’s care was not properly carried out.

“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 letter states. “The Court also reinstated weekly family visits. These were very welcome steps.”

It then sets out the objection: “Concerningly, Mr Khan’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 Daily Mirror reported that Khan was taken back to jail on Friday, hours after being moved to Islamabad’s private Shifa International Hospital for checks ordered by the Supreme Court after his lawyers raised concerns about his health.

Three requests

The captains asked that the medical board directed by the Supreme Court, including Khan’s own doctors, be allowed to complete a full and independent assessment — particularly of the reported loss of vision in his right eye. They asked that the weekly family visits reinstated by the court be honoured without interruption or administrative delay. And they asked that whatever treatment the assessment recommends be provided without delay.

The signatories describe themselves as writing “not as politicians, but as former colleagues and rivals who share a bond forged on the cricket field,” and say they do not seek to adjudicate Pakistan’s domestic legal processes — only that a court-ordered medical process be completed.

Alongside Ranatunga, the 22 signatories include 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, Kapil Dev, Clive Lloyd, Andrew Strauss, Dilip Vengsarkar, Steve Waugh and John Wright. Hiru News headlined the story as Ranatunga joining “21 former captains” — the same group counted without him.

Second appeal in six months

This is the captains’ second letter to the Pakistani premier in six months. In February, 14 former captains wrote expressing concern over an eye complaint that Khan’s family says has left him almost completely blind in one eye, alleging medical neglect in prison.

Khan, 73, was Pakistan’s prime minister from 2018 to 2022 before being removed in a no-confidence vote. He has been in custody since May 2023, an arrest that triggered protests across the country and hundreds of further arrests. He is serving multiple sentences on corruption charges — including terms of 10, 14 and 17 years — and a seven-year sentence handed down before the 2024 elections over the timing of his marriage. He denies all the charges, and his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, maintains the cases are politically motivated.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Federation of Human Rights have all raised concerns about the fairness of his trials and his prison conditions. His sons say he is held in a “death cell” and subjected to psychological torture. The Pakistani government has repeatedly denied the claims.

Sources