SIALKOT, June 1: Three unemployed youths of Daska have sold their kidneys for sustenance of their families. Three friends — Munawar alias Piply, Waqas and Zafar Butt have sold their kidneys to a private hospital in Lahore near Kalma Chowk through some dealers.

Munawar told reporters that he could only get primary education and failed to find any job to shoulder the burden of a poor family.

He said that poverty alleviation programmes and public welfare schemes launched by the government were nothing more than an eyewash.

Similarly, he regretted that institutions like Baitul Maal and Zakat & Ushr were not giving the poor their due rights.

He said that families of his friends — Waqas and Zafar Butt — were also feeling the crunch, forcing them to sell off their organs. Their families were without food for several days, he claimed.

Munawar said that Waqas (16) was the first one who had sold his kidney. Later, he himself became a sub-dealer and took him and Zafar to hospital for the removal of kidneys.

Munawar claimed that he had earned Rs115,000 while the dealer scooped Rs150,000 from the hospital management. “We have also informed our other poor fellows about the kidney trade for their benefit”, he said.

He gave out that several people of Sialkot, Sambrial, Pasrur, Shakargarh, Zafarwal and Narowal had their kidneys removed and the trend was growing rapidly.

When contacted, some officials of the hospital claimed that kidneys were purchased after fulfilling all legal requirements.

Daska NGO’s ‘Young Blood Bank’ president Tanvir Ahmad Mughal and secretary-general Haji Zahid Jehangir have expressed grave concern over the illegal kidney trade in the region. They have demanded that the government should enact laws to check this nasty business.