Islamabad, July 31 (IANS) A 30-year-old Pakistani man was fraudulently operated upon and his kidney removed by organ traffickers, a media report said Sunday.
Mohammad Tariq, a daily wage earner, came to Rawalpindi in search of work from Pakpattan in Punjab province. He got a job at a private housing society, where he met a man named Ijaz Ahmed.
Tariq was a hepatitis-C patient, and he used to complain about pain in his stomach.
According to Dawn News, Ijaz took him to a private ‘transplant centre’ in Rawalpindi, where he was given an injection, and he became unconscious.
Later, Ijaz told him that he went through a ‘major surgery’ and ‘stones’ were removed from his kidney.
Tariq – a father to three daughters – was, however, shocked when a hospital staff member told him Ijaz was allegedly involved in commercial sale of organs.
When his stitches were removed after nearly two weeks, Tariq was given Rs.2,000 by the hospital as travelling expenses to his native town.
Back home, he again started suffering from pain, and had an ultrasound procedure done, which confirmed that one of his kidneys was indeed removed.
Already a hepatitis patient, Tariq says his life has been ruined.
‘I can’t ride a bicycle or motorbike. I can’t pick up heavy things. Sometimes I want to kill myself than to live such a painful life,’ he was quoted as saying.
He filed a complaint with police, insisting he did not sell his kidney.
‘I had no such plan as I was already suffering from hepatitis C,’ he said.
Pakistan’s Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 2009 bans removal of any human organ except for treatment, and those involved in trafficking organs can be punished with up to 10 years in jail and a fine of up to Rs.1 million.
