PAKISTAN

It is time to do
away with myths. Hundreds
of Pakistanis who have had
kidney transplants are flocking to a playground during
weekends to deliver a message to their countrypeople
donate your organs to
save lives. The event, first of
its kind in the country,
marked the start of a nation-
wide campaign to remove
the general misconception
prevailing among the people
that kidney donation was
hazardous, said organisers.

Since 1985, about 3,000
people have received a new
lease of life in Pakistan when
organ transplantation was
introduced in this country
which is one of the world's
largest Islamic nations. "We
want to spread awareness
that it is safe to donate," said
Anwar Naqvi, the main
sponsor of the campaign and
professor in medicine at the
Sindh Institute of Urology
and Transplantation (SIUT).
Naqvi said that the rate of
transplants in the country
was 87 per cent and no donor
was reported to have faced
any health hazard.

Transplant surgery is
carried out in public as well
as private hospitals in Karachi, Rawalpindi and Lahore
at a cost of Rs 350,000 at private hospitals and at half of
that at a public facility. Naqvi
said that all the transplants
that were done at the SIUT
were conducted free of cost.
In Pakistan, there is a strong
opposition from the Islamic
clergy against cadaveric
transplants for which no law
has yet been enacted.