The anti-corruption branch of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in Peshawar, Pakistan, has uncovered an inter-provincial network of illegal human-organ transplants, involving hospital officials, doctors and illegal donors. This discovery followed a complaint lodged by a former Mardan government official, Fazle Qadir, against Shoaib Afridi, a dialysis technician at Khyber Teaching Hospital in Peshawar. Qadir had used Afridi’s services and had paid him Rs. 3.1 million for a transplant.
Shoaib Afridi was arrested by Peshawar’s FIA. During the investigation, he revealed that many experienced surgeons were involved in the network, which also included officials from other provinces. Afridi was working as an intermediary to organize donors, most of whom were destitute and needy, and to hire the surgeons paid to perform transplants. FIA’s anti-corruption director, Mian Saeed, said that further investigations were under way to dismantle the network.
For further reading:
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Iraq, a ‘hot spot’ for illegal organ trade in 2018
UN denounces organ trafficking
India – waiting lists to include foreigners in an attempt to curb transplant tourism
The Express Tribune, Umer Farooq (6/03/2019) – FIA dismantles illegal kidney transplant network