21 Former Cricket Captains Write to Prime Minister, Demand Medical Facilities for Imran Khan
ISLAMABAD: Twenty-one former Test and international cricket captains, representing players from around the globe, have issued a joint letter to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, requesting a proper medical exam and proper healthcare facilities for former Pakistan captain and ex-PM Imran Khan.
In their letter to the Supreme Court, the former captains pointed out that the Supreme Court had earlier ordered Imran Khan to be shifted to the hospital and a medical examination by a committee that consists of his own doctors and Dr. Uzma Khan, his sister, and also restore weekly visits from his family. The signatories expressed their deep concern that his hospital stay was only for few hours and that he was examined by the team appointed by the officials of the hospital and not by the official appointed medical board by Supreme Court before being declared medically fit and re-arrested at Adiala Jail.
Three Key Demands and Signatories
The three main demands of the former captains included holding a proper and independent examination of Imran Khan by the Supreme Court medical board, especially to look at his right eye where he lost vision in his eye in the past, allowing family members to visit him every week, and giving him the medical treatment recommended by the doctors.
The letter is signed by some of the greatest names in cricket history such as Michael Atherton, Alex Blackwell, Allan Border, Michael Brearley, Greg Chappell, Ian Chappell, Belinda Clark, Alastair Cook, Mike 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. The former captains have explained that they are calling this appeal not as politicians but as former teammates and rivals on the cricket field and do not wish to get involved in the domestic legal proceedings in Pakistan.
The letter from the former global captains to the Prime Minister is the second such letter sent to him in six months, after a similar appeal was made to him in February by 14 former skippers over the issue of his health and vision. In the meantime, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar addressed a press conference and said that the directives of the Supreme Court had been followed, “with complete transparency” adding that the PTI founder’s sister and doctors from Shifa International Hospital were in attendance during the examination, and all legal requirements were duly met.