PHOTO: FILE
Petitioner Humaira Mudassar through her counsel Zeeshan Iftikhar Thothal had moved the Islamabad High Court (IHC) stating that the Human Organ Transplantation Authority (Hota) was not issuing her the no-objection certificate (NOC) to move to India to donate her liver tissues to one of her family friends fighting for his life at an Indian hospital due to kidney and liver failure.
The petitioner, who said she teaches the patient’s children, also submitted an affidavit from her husband stating that he had no objection to his wife’s decision to donate liver tissues.
Sulaiman Mohammad, 46, is currently admitted to the Apollo Hospital in New Delhi for liver and kidney complications and according to documents submitted to the court, his current medical status was highly critical as he was on life support.
Ray of hope for liver patients
The counsel for the petitioner said that the patient was on his death bed and transplantation was the only cure to save his life but the authorities were not granting permission which is “tantamount to denying the right of life to the patient”.
The petitioner, who had made the federation through Hota Administrator Faridullah Khattak as respondent, said that neither the Hota Act, 2010, nor rules put a bar on any Pakistani citizen to donate any organ (on humanitarian grounds) to a fellow countryman getting treatment in a foreign country.
“The petitioner is willing to donate her liver tissues to the patient for saving his life,” her counsel said adding that a request letter seeking the NOC was submitted but the respondent “flatly refused to entertain the request.”
He said that was his client’s second petition in the court as the previous one was disposed of after the official submitted a reply that no application had been received.
Thothal said that the respondent concealed the facts from the court as the application was received by the respondent on July 22 but it was not admitted to the court.
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The petitioner’s counsel said that the patient’s wife and his brother-in-law had gone to India as prospective donors but doctors in India had only accepted his wife as a kidney donor. He said that the patient’s brother-in-law could not be accepted as a donor as he was suffering from diabetes and was also a cardiac patient.
He said that doctors in India had recommended transplantation of the kidney and liver in one surgery on an urgent basis.
IHC judge Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, while accepting the plea, issued on the spot orders to Hota to issue the NOC to the petitioner without any delay.
The petitioner got a permission letter after an official of Hota submitted it before the court by the evening.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 2nd, 2016.
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