A cricket match at Lord’s turned into a diplomatic standoff last month, and the fallout is still playing out in a Pakistani courtroom this week.
Kasim and Sulaiman Khan, sons of jailed former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan, say the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) tried to stop Sky Sports from airing an interview about their father’s imprisonment, going so far as to threaten pulling the national team off the field during the second Test at Lord’s.
The brothers spoke to former England captain Michael Atherton in an 18-minute interview recorded a day before the match and broadcast during the lunch interval on day one.
According to ESPNcricinfo, the PCB contacted Sky Sports shortly before lunch and warned that Pakistan’s players would not return for the post-lunch session if the interview aired.
Sky delayed the broadcast before running it during the interval anyway. In Pakistan, state broadcaster PTV did not air the segment.
Kasim did not soften his language when describing what he believes is happening to his father in custody.
“They’re clearly hoping to kill him in there,” he told Atherton. “They want to silence him as secretly as possible and just slowly make him fade into nothing,” he added.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Kasim called the PCB’s response embarrassing. “They made absolute fools of themselves,” he said.
Sulaiman went further, questioning why a cricket board would involve itself in the matter at all. “It shouldn’t be in the remit of the PCB to ask for an interview about an ex-Pakistan player, somebody who lived in England for 22 years, to be taken down,” he said.
He added that this wasn’t about politics, but about the humanitarian situation and his health.
The interview itself, centred on the family’s difficulty visiting Imran Khan, the conditions of his solitary confinement, and a Supreme Court order for hospital treatment that the family says was not properly followed.
During the 2025 Asia Cup, India refused to accept the trophy from Naqvi after the final, a standoff BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia later called a deliberate decision, saying it was unacceptable to receive an award from someone who represents a country that is openly hostile and waging war against India.
Imran Khan has been in prison since August 2023, following a conviction he and his party say is politically motivated. Concerns over his health have mounted for months, including reports of deteriorating eyesight and rising blood pressure linked to prolonged solitary confinement.
On August 18, Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered his transfer to the private Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad for medical evaluation.
According to Reuters, authorities took him to the state-run Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences for a brief examination before returning him to Adiala Jail, a move Information Minister Attaullah Tarar attributed to security concerns.
Khan’s sister, Dr Uzma Khan, filed a contempt petition days later, arguing the government had defied the court’s order.
The Supreme Court has rejected two applications to fast-track the hearing, and with 94 other contempt petitions already pending, both the government’s review plea and Uzma Khan’s contempt petition are now scheduled to be heard together on September 16.
