Imran Khan must get 'humane treatment and proper medical care' in prison, ex-cricket captains urge Pakistan

Former cricket captains - including Sir Alastair Cook and Mike Atherton - have urged Pakistan to ensure jailed former prime minister Imran Khan receives "humane treatment and proper medical care".

The letter, shared on Khan's Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party's Facebook page, comes after the 73-year-old was temporarily moved to a hospital last week after a supreme court ruling.

The cricketer-turned-politician has been in jail since August 2023 after being convicted in a string of cases which he says were politically driven, having been ousted from power in 2022.

His lawyers say he has lost 85% of vision in his right eye while in jail, and Khan's sons have repeatedly raised concerns about his health.

Read more: Khan being held in 'death cell', his sons say

Meanwhile, Khan's English ex-wife, Jemima Goldsmith Khan, has urged Andy Burnham and Ed Miliband to act to help the former prime minister get access to his doctors.

The former cricketers wrote their letter after reports that Khan was only in hospital for a few hours before being returned to prison last week.

"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," they said in their letter to Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

"His family and legal team say this falls short of what the court ordered."

The government told the Associated Press it denies allegations that Khan has been subjected to "cruelty, mental torture, punitive solitary confinement and medical neglect" while in prison.

Cricketers call for 'full and independent' check-up

The cricketers have called for the government to abide by the court ruling and let the medical board - "including Mr Khan's own doctors" - complete "a full and independent assessment of his health", particularly on his right eye.

It's the second letter from ex-cricketers to the current Pakistani prime minister this year "appealing for humane treatment and proper medical care" for his predecessor, with the first in February.

Other signatories included Indian cricket stars Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar and Dilip Vengsarkar, former England stars David Gower, Mike Brearley, Mike Gatting and Nasser Hussain, as well as Australian batsmen Adam Gilchrist and Greg Chappell.

No Pakistani cricketers signed the letter.

'Do the right thing', ex-wife urges Burnham

It comes as Ms Goldsmith Khan urged Mr Burnham and Mr Miliband to help the former prime minister, accusing Pakistan army chief Asim Munir of a "personal vendetta" against Khan.

She also claimed her ex-husband was being "brutally penalised by his political opponents", and added: "This is no longer simply a Pakistani political matter. It is a human-rights emergency."

Ms Goldsmith Khan then said: "He has deep and lifelong ties to Britain... Britain has a long and proud tradition of standing against arbitrary detention, inhumane treatment and the denial of fundamental rights.

"Those principles mean very little if we invoke them only selectively and neglect them when inconvenient. This is an appeal to the new Burnham government to please now do the right thing."

Court order broken, Khan's sister and doctor say

It also comes after Khan's sister Dr Uzma Khan accused the government of violating the court order by taking him to a government hospital for a medical examination instead of a private hospital, as designated by the court.

She said that during a meeting with her brother at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, a government-run hospital in Islamabad, he complained that he had been kept in solitary confinement, which she said amounted to mental torture for him.

Khan's personal physician, Dr Faisal Sultan, also said that he had been escorted to Shifa International Hospital, where he waited for the former prime minister until he was eventually told that he had already been returned to prison.

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In a statement to the Associated Press, Pakistan's information ministry denied the allegations, saying they were not supported by prison and medical records.

The PTI party has since filed a contempt petition against the Pakistani government for moving Khan to a public hospital.

(c) Sky News 2026: Imran Khan must get 'humane treatment and proper medical care' in prison, ex-cricket