July 24, 2007	Tuesday	Rajab 08, 1428

ISLAMABAD, July 23: The draft Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Ordinance, which was earlier sent from the cabinet to the government’s top legal brains for vetting and removal of anomalies, has been reformulated.

The new draft, which will come before the cabinet for approval soon, contains many flaws and few improvements, Dawn can reveal.

It is still not clear when the federal cabinet plans to accord its assent to the law, which has been under government’s consideration for several years now. However, the government would have to explain what has been holding it back from promulgating the law for all these years when its representative appears before the Supreme Court on Wednesday (July 25).

Currently, Pakistan is one of the few countries in the world where organ trade is not banned by law and has earned the notoriety of being ‘a kidney bazaar’.

Rough estimates show that the annual turnover of the kidney business here, centred in the country’s two most politically powerful cities (Rawalpindi and Lahore), is close to Rs980 million.

The lobby indulging in commercial dealings had been opposing enforcement of the law, but after realising that it could no more be successful in stopping it, went all out to extract maximum concessions through the courtesy of their patrons sitting in the echelons of power. Under pressure from this lobby the government revised its drafts several times, on each occasion granting more and more relaxation to them.

One of the many controversial clauses inserted in the most recent draft of the ordinance is that in case of non-availability of a related donor, a non-relative could be allowed to donate the required organ for which the donor would be compensated.

This permission for compensation to donor, the advocates of altruistic donations believe, is negation of the concept of voluntary donations and legalises the sale of organs.

Similarly, the condition of ‘will of the donor’ for donations after death has been relaxed. Instead a verified authorisation by the donor would suffice and this condition can also be waived off by the heirs of the deceased.