AN EXPLOSIVE dispute over Imran Khan’s treatment in prison put the England-Pakistan Test at Lord’s under threat on Friday after the Pakistan Cricket Board objected to a Sky Sports interview with the former prime minister’s sons.
The ECB spoke with officials from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office after the PCB suggested it could instruct Pakistan’s players not to return for the afternoon session. The board also considered raising the matter with the UK’s Foreign Office.
Sky initially held back the interview, recorded by Mike Atherton, while it listened to the PCB’s objection. It was later broadcast during the interval and the Pakistan team returned to the field.
Pakistan head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed said: “I don’t know anything. I’m just focusing on the match,” he said. “We don’t know about the interview.”
Kasim and Sulaiman, Khan’s sons, told Atherton they were deeply concerned about his treatment. They said prison restrictions were “tightening further the sense of isolation and torture”.
“They [the Pakistan authorities] are not even acting with any kind of strategy any more. It is not very clear what they are doing, just blatantly trying to kill him in there,” Kasim said.
The sons also said Khan had lost 80 per cent of his vision in one eye, was kept in a “very small cell” for 23 hours a day and had no air conditioning despite very high temperatures.
Pakistan rejected the allegations, saying Khan was being detained as a “convicted prisoner”, had access to exercise facilities, books, television and home-cooked food, and had received more than 900 visits since his imprisonment in 2023.
