KARACHI, April 29: Pakistan is being pushed back into the era of organ trafficking because the ministry of health and Human Organ Transplant Authority officials refuse to accept and act upon conclusive evidence relating to organ trade and carry out an honest investigation, it emerged on Friday. Abject poverty coupled with most severe forms of human rights violations was forcing people to sell their organs, said Prof Adibul Hasan Rizvi while speaking at the press conference, organised by the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) in collaboration with Transplantation Society of Pakistan (TSP), Pakistan Society of Nephrology (PSN) and Pakistan Association of Urological Surgeons (PAUS).

Interviews and observations show that over 450 cases of organ trade have occurred in Punjab villages since March 2010 when the organ transplant law was enacted.

Prof Rizvi said it was time that all the civilised segments of society joined hands once again and developed pressure for the implementation of the law, which was passed after a 15-year-long struggle.

“This press briefing is an open letter to the government, its officials, legislators and the Supreme Court to take action against people who are openly making mockery of the law. What’s the use of making a law if you don’t have the will to implement it? If you can’t defend the law, close down the assemblies,” Dr Rizvi said, adding that the ministry of health and Hota had taken no action on any of the complaints sent to them.

‘Doctors active in trafficking’ He questioned the role of police in failing to curb the illegal practice and legislators who unanimously passed the law last year and said: “I feel ashamed because doctors are playing the most active role in organ trafficking.”

He recalled that a few years ago Pakistan was the largest organ bazaar in the world visited by around 1,500 foreigners each year for kidney transplants, with each patient paying between $10,000 and $20,000.

But the situation changed when the government promulgated an ordinance in 2007 and later passed a law in March 2010.

“The credit goes to all for putting up a sustained struggled for legislation. But, unfortunately, we are again receiving complaints about organ trade after a brief interval,” he said.

Citing the case of a patient from Oman, Dr Rizvi said the patient died of complications last year but the government inquiry committee couldn’t trace the culprits.

“The committee set up by the Supreme Court found undeniable evidence in the case and asked the health ministry to conduct an inquiry. After investigation, the ministry declared that no conclusive evidence was found,” he said.

An important part of the press briefing was the screening of a documentary that contained interviews of several people who had sold their kidneys in recent weeks in rural areas of Punjab. They claimed that they had done so to pay off their debts.

The poor families spoke about extreme forms of abuses at the hands of landlords, who, in two cases, raped women and kept families in shackles. Many were promised large amounts of money but were paid less.

“All such families somewhat got into debts of a few thousand of rupees initially. But landlords charged high interest rates.

They were also fined for faults at work which contributed greatly to the accumulated amount,” said Kishwar Zehra, an MNA and activist working for the Support Trust, who conducted the interviews in eight villages.

Society must stand with these people and help the families, which never came out of the vicious cycle of debts and were found in a worse predicament due to lack of post-operative care, medicines or follow-up, she said.

Prof Ejaz Ahmed of the PSN said that after a gap of several months, new patients with transplants from unrelated donors were seeking follow-up with nephrologists in different cities, which indicated a resurgence of commercial transplant activity.

“These cases are coming from all cities and need immediate attention of the authorities,” he said.

Highlighting the need for public awareness, Prof Ahmed Fawad of the PAUS said: “People should know that getting a kidney is not the end of a story. Patients with transplants require certain drugs for life and need regular follow-ups with nephrologists,” he said.

Prof Mirza Naqi Zafar, TSP secretary general, gave an overview of the process of drafting and adoption of the transplantation law. He said that the World Health Organization declared the law as one of the best in the world, indicating that it could be used as a template in other regional countries.