The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought a comprehensive report from the Federation, Gilgit-Baltistan and all the provincial governments over illegal sale of kidney in the country. Resuming the hearing of a suo motu notice on illegal sale of kidney, a three-member bench led by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar termed illegal harvesting of organs an ulcer for society, saying that donors of organs have been subjected to great exploitation.
During the course of proceedings, concerned authorities submitted a 53-page report in the matter disclosing existence of several such villages across Punjab where people are living with only a single kidney. Senior Superintendent of Islamabad Police, Sajid Kyani has compiled the report in pursuance of the court's earlier directives, saying illegal kidney transplant is rampant in parts of the country including Islamabad, Azad Jammu And Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan, whereas several registered organisations are also involved in this illicit practice.
The report further disclosed that only the Federal Investigation Agency can take action against those registered organisations involved in this appalling practice, whereas Islamabad does not fall in jurisdiction of ordinance which terms illegal sale of kidney a punishable offence. It is important to mention that the Supreme Court had taken notice in the matter in response to a letter of Dr Adib Rizvi of the SIUT. Rizvi had stated in the letter that transplant tourism, in which kidney patients living abroad visit Pakistan for the purpose of transplantation with vended organs, was earning a bad name for the country.
Issuing directives to the Islamabad Police for submitting charge-sheets (challans) against the arrested persons on the charges of illegal sale of kidneys, the court also asked the police to file a report in this regard on the next date of hearing.