KARACHI, March 4: The eyes of Sheikh Amjad, who was hanged to death in a murder case on Thursday, were transplanted into a 19-year-old girl and a middle-aged man at the Spencer's Eye Hospital.

The recipients, Najmus Sahar and Nisar, were both fine, Dr Sultan Ali, the Medical Superintendent of the Spencer's Eye Hospital, told Dawn. He said Mr Amjad's body, after the hanging at about 5.30am, had been taken to an Edhi Centre on Thursday morning.

"Here Mr Amjad's eyes were removed from his body at about 6am. The eyes were then taken to our eye hospital where they were grafted into the faces of Najmus Sahar and Nisar," he explained.

Rizwan Edhi, who supervised the handling of Mr Amjad's body, observed that everything went according to plan except for some protestations on the part of the victim's father. "But we were prepared for this and after minor hiccups the transplant operations were carried out smoothly."

Mr Edhi was of the view that thousands of people could benefit every year if cadaver donation law was adopted by parliament. "Look, over the last 40 years we have buried more than 250,000 bodies. How many eyes did we bury unnecessarily along with these bodies, you calculate."

Mr Amjad wanted to donate his kidneys too, said Mr Edhi. "But his kidneys could not be donated because after death they become useless. And, under the law, we are not allowed to inflict injuries on a convict before execution, even for medical purposes."

He said he failed to understand why the cadaver donation law had been pending for the last ten years in the parliament. "Had this law been adopted say five years ago, thousands of people might have benefited greatly from it."