May 27, 2007	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 10, 1428

LAHORE, May 26: The number of kidney removal victims (both willing and unwilling) in Punjab can be in hundreds, police investigators told Dawn on Saturday. They said they were interrogating the owner of Masood Hospital, Dr Zaki, and his son Dr Masood, and Shafi Hospital’s Dr Shafiq, and a doctor of a public sector hospital, Dr Omar, for their alleged involvement in the illegal kidney trade.

The doctors were arrested on Friday on the complaints of 10 people, including a woman, who were kept in confinement for the purpose (removal of kidney) in Liaqutabad.

The doctors were presented in the court that sent them on a judicial remand.

Meanwhile, three more kidney ‘donors’ appeared at the Factory Area police on Saturday and said they had come to Lahore for work sometimes ago but an agent of the kidney mafia lured them to a hospital for donating their vital organ against Rs100,000 per case.

However, after being operated upon, they had not been paid the promised money, they added.

A senior police official told this reporter that raids were being conducted to arrest the owners of the Rashid Hospital in Lahore and Fatimah Hospital in Multan.

He said the information gathered so far indicated that a number of private hospitals in Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi had been involved in the heinous crime for years.

He said the kidney mafia was quite active across the province and their arrest could only be possible through the doctors and the victims.

Punjab Health Minister Chaudhry Iqbal told Dawn that strict action would be taken against those involved in the illegal trade.

In the absence of a relevant law, the government could not initiate action against the doctors who took undertaking from a person that he or she was ‘willingly’ donating his or her kidney.

However, in case a person was forced to donate his vital organ it became a criminal offence.

He said that the accused doctors if found guilty would not escape the punishment.

To a question whether the hospitals of the accused doctors would be closed, the minister said that the government would carry out strict monitoring to stop them from further continuing the practice. Besides, he said the govt would gather report on the suspected private hospitals in Punjab.

A visit to the three hospitals in the city reveals that people are afraid of visiting them after their alleged involvement in the illegal business surfaced on Friday.