LAHORE, June 5: Mrs Hasan has stopped visiting her gynecologist at one of the three private hospitals allegedly involved in illegal kidney transplant in Lahore, fearing that she may lose her kidney while undergoing C-section.

Mrs Hasan is among scores of people who have stopped visiting these three hospitals. Even the number of patients who used to visit physicians there has also dropped drastically.

The doctors working in these facilities are also perturbed over the alleged involvement of their administrations in the illegal activity.

“On an average, I used to examine between 10 and 15 patients a day before the arrest of the hospital’s owner. Now hardly a couple of patients visit me,” says a senior physician at one of the hospitals, requesting anonymity. He says the doctors who work in these facilities as part-timers have already quit them while the other staffers, especially the paramedics, have been denied salary.

“We are not sure whether the administration will close down the hospital for a while or not,” says a staffer.

According to police claim, these hospitals are still under surveillance.

Though Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi has ordered a crackdown against those involved in organ trade in Punjab, the police have not been able to unearth the racket so far.

Top police officials also claim that they are monitoring the suspected private hospitals, but at the same time admit that they have so far not managed to obtain evidence against their illegal activities.

A urologist working at a public hospital told this reporter that besides these three hospitals at least four other private healthcare facilities in Lahore and one in Rawalpindi were also involved in the illegal kidney transplant. He said the hospital in Rawalpindi had openly been doing this business for the last two decades or so but the authorities concerned had turned a blind eye to it due to its owner’s connections in the right places.

He said in the absence of any law, the police could not register a case against the people involved in this activity. He said the arrest of the owners of the two hospitals in Lahore and some doctors working there last month was made possible because the victims had complained that they had been “forced to donate” their vital organ. He said this was not possible and an organ was removed with the consent of a donor. However, they (donors) were often not paid the promised amount.