The PCB made a formal complaint to Sky Sports after an interview with the sons of former Pakistan captain and prime minister, Imran Khan, was aired during the lunch interval at Lord's on day one.
The board reportedly also contacted Sky before the interview was broadcast and threatened to instruct their players not to take the field for the afternoon session if the interview was aired. Imran Khan's sons, Sulaiman and Kasim, spoke to former England captain and Sky pundit Michael Atherton in the Lord's pavilion for the interview.
What did Imran Khan's sons say in the interview the PCB tried to stop Sky from airing?
The interview follows increased scrutiny over the healthcare Imran has been receiving in recent weeks. The former prime minister has been in prison since 2023 having been convicted on corruption charges. His health has reportedly deteriorated, and in February, 14 former captains wrote a letter to the Pakistan governement urging for Imran to receive proper healthcare in prison. That campaigning was stepped up last week when 22 former captains wrote a similar letter to Pakistan prime minister Shehbaz Sharif.
After an order from Pakistan's Supreme Court last week for Imran to be admited to Shifa Hospital in Islamabad, he was instead taken to a state-run healthcare facility, before being returned to prison after a check-up.
Speaking to Atherton, Imran's sons criticised the difficulties family members have had in seeing him since he has been in prison, and labelled the decision to send him to a state-run health facility as "extremely frustrating". They also allege that the intentions behind Imran's continued imprisonment are "blatanltly trying to kill him".
"He was checked on by government-selected physicians, doctors, things like that," said Kasim. "It was a short check-up. It was frustrating for us, especially because we were getting messages over and over again saying, 'Congratulations, you must be so happy that he's being dealt with, that he's getting checked up.'
"In reality, it was an hour check-up by government officials who said, 'Great, he's okay,' and then said, 'We're going to now send him to the independent hospital, Shifa.' And instead they just left all of the doctors waiting, our auntie waiting, who's a doctor, and just went straight back to jail.
"So extremely frustrating - that element especially. He still hasn't been properly checked up by an unbiased, independent physician or doctor. And it just makes us think, you know, what are they hiding? Why are they so fearful of allowing him to get reported on by an unbiased, neutral doctor?"
Sulaiman said that his father had lost "about 80 per cent of the vision in one of his eyes," and that Imran's complaints about his eyesight had been ignored. He also detailed concerns over his father's blood pressure.
Both sons were also critical of the conditions Imran has been kept in, and the difficulties they and other family members have had in visitation. "Until last week, no one's been able to see him for ten months, despite them going to the jail every week to attempt to see him," said Sulaiman. "The court have ordered that he have weekly family visits, but no one's seen him for ten months until last week."
Kasim: "We've tried multiple times [to see Imran]. The visas essentially are blocked. The visas we apply for are blocked for technical reasons. They said at one point they're stalled, and others - and essentially, they just clearly don't want us to go for one reason or another. Maybe out of fear that we're going to be active and try to support the efforts of getting him out from over there, which I guess has just led to them stalling or rejecting [the applications]."
Kasim also alleged that the conditions Imran is being kept in during his confinement have worsened.
"The last time he was able to speak to our aunties and anyone else, he did say that the conditions have severely worsened recently," said Kasim. "He's been relating it to other political prisoners who have been killed, I guess you would say, or have died in prison. And right now it's worse than ever. They're completely isolating him more than 23 hours a day in a cell. So right now it's really crucial for us that he gets proper treatment. When he was seen by them, he had an eye patch on from the eye situation. He seemed visibly stressed, and that is something that's very hard for us to imagine because he embodies kind of calm — a very calm, assured presence."
The most serious allegation laid against the Pakistan government, however, was over their intentions for Imran's continued imprisonment. "It's very, very clear what they're doing, which is they're just blatantly trying to kind of kill him in there," said Kasim. "They just want to keep him in there as long as possible and hopefully just silence him."
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