ISLAMABAD, July 31: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz’s insistence on routing the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Ordinance, 2007, through the cabinet instead of referring it to the president and its ‘fine tuning’ may have caused the delay in its enactment, despite the health ministry’s caution that the matter was of critical importance, documents reveal.

The federal cabinet is once again taking up the matter on Wednesday after the Supreme Court gave one month to the government to promulgate the ordinance.

The health ministry moved a summary to the prime minister in January, asking him to dispense with referring the issue to the cabinet under Rule 16(2) of the Rules of Business, 1973, and advise President Pervez Musharraf to promulgate the ordinance.

The summary countersigned by the law ministry said the matter was urgent as the Supreme Court had ordered early legislation to end human organs’ trade.

The prime minister ordered that the draft ordinance should be placed before the cabinet, although the summary had stated that the proposed law had already been referred to the cabinet for approval but the matter was getting delayed.

Pleading for promulgation of the ordinance, the health ministry had informed the prime minister that in the absence of a law to regulate transplantation of human organs and tissues, unethical sale of kidneys, which was to the detriment of patients and involved exploitation of the poor, was flourishing and even attracting foreigners requiring kidney transplant.

The proposed law was discussed by the cabinet on Feb 7 and handed over to Law Minister Wasi Zafar and to the Prime Minister’s Adviser Sharifuddin Pirzada for ‘fine tuning’ of the text, although the nation was given the tidings of ‘in-principle approval’.

The committee went on to insert certain controversial clauses in the draft, which included compensation for donors and permission for donations to foreigners, thereby changing the complexion of the proposed law to the benefit of the lobby involved in the trade of organs in the country, that now has an annual turnover of close to Rs1 billion.

Although the provision allowing donations to foreigners was shot down by a top government functionary, the clause permitting payment of compensation to non-related donors, which is being implied as an attempt to legalise the trade, was allowed to go through and it is on the draft that will be placed before the cabinet.

It is unclear what will the fate be of the amendments to the draft law proposed by three prestigious medical organisations – the Transplantation Society of Pakistan, the Pakistan Society of Nephrology and the Pakistan Association of Urological Surgeons -- that call for deletion of the clause regarding compensation to non-related donors and suggest certain conditions for non-related donations.