ISLAMABAD, Aug 27: The Supreme Court asked the chief secretaries and health secretaries of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Monday to justify why they had failed to notify the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissue Ordinance 2012 and subsequent rules. However, it praised the Punjab government for completing the job.

A two-judge bench comprising Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain had taken up a joint petition moved by human rights activists, social workers, religious scholars, educationists, journalists and medical practitioners led by Asma Jehangir, a former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association.

The petition seeks a court direction for the government to devise rules and protocols to prevent flagrant violation of the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissue Act 2010.

The court had directed the chief secretaries and health secretaries to enforce the law in their provinces to check the mushroom growth of unauthorised organ transplant hospitals.

“For the last five months we are impressing upon the provincial governments to do something and have mercy on those you represent and who are forced to sell their kidneys, but in vain,” Justice Khawaja regretted.

“We know that it is not our job to run the government but we have to interfere because of the flagrant violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution. The court will take all appropriate measures to ensure that the fundamental rights of the citizens are protected,” he said, adding that there would be no question of any compromise in this regard.

Referring to the village of Mela and certain other localities, Justice Khawaja regretted that there was not a single man with two kidneys in theses areas.

Justice Khilji said whenever the Supreme Court initiated some steps certain people got annoyed and complained that their supremacy was being infringed upon since the Constitution was silent about supremacy of any organ of the state. At the last hearing on Aug 1, the court had noted that the federal government had made rules and regulations under the Human Organs and Tissue Act and these had been sent to the provinces. But except for offering excuses, it regretted, the provincial governments had not yet finalised these rules.

The court had ordered the chief secretaries to ensure that appropriate rules and law were enacted in their respective provinces.

On Monday, the court was informed that the Punjab government had promulgated the law on Aug 2 and subsequent rules on Aug 25.

The Balochistan government has promulgated the law and is in the process of notifying rules by Tuesday. Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are yet to comply with the court’s orders.

Filed by Advocate Muneer A. Malik, the petition stressed the need for seeking the assistance of an effective and specialised investigative agency like FIA to probe violation of the act. It said the modus operandi of hospitals and doctors violating the law was very sophisticated and commercial transplants taking place frequently involved foreigners.

The court asked the petitioners’ counsel to keep checking whether or not Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were issuing the required notification.