PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Medical Transplantation Regulatory Authority has sought support of religious scholars to promote deceased organ donation in the province.

MTRA was established in line with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Medical Transplantation Regulatory Authority Act, 2014, to regulate donation of organs and put brakes on illegal organ trade. The authority has written a letter to the secretary of Auqaf, Haj and religious and minority affairs department to facilitate religious scholars’ conference on deceased organ donation.

MTRA has facilitated a total of 439 corneal transplants in six recognised hospitals, 683 renal transplants in five hospitals and 683 bones grafting since its establishment. It has been trying to motivate people for organ donation and safeguard them against illegal trade of organs. Of late, it has been working to scale up awareness about deceased donor transplants. So far, 40 persons have volunteered to donate their organs after death.

MTRA has been imparting training to ICU doctors to educate relatives of ventilator-supported brain dead patients about donating organs and manage patients and inform the response team for retrieval of organs.

MTRA requests Auqaf dept to hold ulema conference on the issue

The single case of deceased donor transplant was recorded in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in June this year when relatives of a 14-year-old student Jawad Khan of Mardan, who was brain-dead, agreed to donate his organs that led to transplantation of his two kidneys, as many corneas and liver to needy people.

The letter by MTRA administrator Prof Asif Malik, a renal transplant surgeon, said that the authority had launched ‘deceased organ donation programme’ to increase availability of organs for transplantation in a regulated, ethical and lifesaving manner. “To ensure alignment with religious guidance and public acceptance, we plan to organise a conference of religious scholars with a view to facilitate deliberations among them to reach a consensus on deceased organ donation,” he said.

According to him, MTRA wants the scholars to issue a religious decree after consensus on the matter. Furthermore, the authority wants to ensure that the decree and guidance are disseminated through local religious scholars and networks to people, promoting awareness and acceptance of organ donation.

Prof Asif said that they wanted to enlist support of Auqaf department in organising and facilitating the conference to ensure meaningful participation of relevant religious scholars and stakeholders.

The representatives of MTRA have already held meeting with the secretary of Auqaf department besides working on several parallel regulatory and public-awareness initiatives to ensure that people start donating organs.

Officials said that the move was meant to cover the widening gap between demand and supply of organs and ensure treatment of patients. “Scores of people are awaiting renal and other organ transplants but the number of donors is less and cannot meet the demand, therefore, deceased organ donation programme has been launched,” they added.

They said that the authority wanted to combat illegal organ transplants and oversee ethical, safe and transparent transplantation practices in the province for which the culture of organ donation was important. “Currently, majority of patients undergoing dialysis require renal transplants but in view of lack of awareness, donors are not available. It results in complications to patients,” they added.

Officials said that MTRA was also working to start organ exchange programme. “The programme facilitates organ transplantation between individuals, who are not directly compatible for donation but can be paired with another donor-recipient pair for a successful exchange,” they said.

They said that in many cases recipients and donors were not fit medically due to which the transplant couldn’t be conducted legally. “Once the deceased donor programme gets under way, people will start getting organs,” they added.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2025