Pakistan batting legend Javed Miandad broke down in tears as he spoke about the imprisonment of his long-time teammate and former captain Imran Khan. Miandad, who played in six World Cups between 1975 and 1996, insisted Khan was not corrupt and pleaded for his release. Khan, the country’s Prime Minister between 2018 and 2022, was jailed in 2023 after being convicted on corruption charges.

The 69-year-old Miandad’s statement came shortly after Khan underwent a medical examination in Islamabad before being sent back to the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi. His party contested how the medical evaluation was carried out, noting that the Supreme Court of Pakistan had ordered his transfer to Shifa International Hospital with access to a team of doctors, including his personal physician.

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On Thursday, Khan’s sons Sulaiman and Kasim appeared in an interview at Lord’s with Michael Atherton during the second Test between England and Pakistan. Citing their father’s deteriorating condition, they alleged that their father was being kept in isolation for nearly 23 hours a day.

جاوید میانداد انٹرویو کا مُکمل کلپ۔

شو کے دوران آبدیدہ ہو گئے، کھُل کر عمران خان کے حق میں بولے

"عمران خان کے ساتھ جو ہو رہا ہے غلط ہو رہا ہے، میں کھُل کر کہوں گا یہ غلط ہے، وہ یہ سب ڈیزرو نہیں کرتا وہ قومی ہیرو ہے، اُس کے لیے کچھ بھی کرنا پڑے تو میں تیار ہوں"

جاوید میانداد۔۔۔ pic.twitter.com/Ytj3d7TUQP

— Abuzar Furqan (@AbuzarFurqan) August 28, 2026

Reflecting on the prolonged imprisonment of Pakistan’s 1992 World Cup-winning captain, an emotional Miandad defended his former teammate’s integrity.

“He is an honest man. He is not someone who engages in corrupt practices, otherwise he would have done a lot of things. What will happen if you let him out? Will he eat or damage someone? He is also someone’s son. I always think about what he must be doing,” Miandad said on the Narrative YouTube channel.

Khan and Miandad defined Pakistan’s rise as a world-beating force in the 80s and 90s. The duo played a vital role in Pakistan’s World Cup final trumph over England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1991. With Pakistan in early trouble, Khan and Miandad forged a 134-run partnership to lead Pakistan to their maiden title.

Controversy had erupted on Thursday when reports emerged that the Pakistan national team had threatened to not take the field after Khan’s sons were interviewed by Sky Sports.

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“It’s very, very clear what they’re doing, which is they’re just blatantly trying to kill him in there,” Khan’s son, Kasim claimed. “They just want to keep him in there as long as possible and hopefully just silence him,” he added. He had earlier mentioned the assassination attempts when bullets hit his legs in 2022.

Earlier this week, 21 former captains, including Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar and Dilip Vengsarkar, had written to Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif about taking steps to improve Khan’s health. “I suppose the basic theme was the way the state has tried to airbrush Imran almost out of existence, which is increasingly difficult to do in a social media age,” Atherton had said on Sky Sports Cricket.