LAHORE: A division bench of the Supreme Court (SC) has directed the Punjab advocate general (AG) to submit by September 16 a detailed report about recovery of kidnapped children.
The bench, taking suo motu notice of kidnapping incidents in the province, had constituted a high-level committee on August 3. During the hearing on Thursday, Punjab Advocate General Shakilur Rehman informed the court that rumours regarding abduction of children for the sale of vital body organs had not been verified. He also said that no gang involved in selling children’s body parts had surfaced so far.
He said that rumours on the social media regarding kidnapping of children for organ trade had sparked fear among the people, especially the parents.
The bench expressed concern over the matter and urged citizens not to believe everything they were hearing on the social media.
It observed that civil society and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) should play their role to discourage people spreading such rumours. It also asked the media to avoid sensationalising the issue of child abduction.
The AG submitted a report stating that 139 of the 310 kidnapped children were recovered until August 23, 2016, while efforts were being made for the recovery of the remaining children.
King Edward Medical University Vice Chancellor Dr Faisal Masud informed the court that it was not possible to extract organs from children below the age of five years. He also said that kidneys from children aged up to five years were useless. He said that once removed, a kidney should be transplanted within 45 minutes, which was impossible in such cases. He also said it was mandatory to take permission from the government for transplanting organs of children aged between five and 15 years.
The Punjab Police inspector general (IG) had already submitted a report, stating that 6,793 children had been abducted between 2011 and 2016, of which 6,654 were recovered. The report also states that 139 cases were still being investigated.
According to the report, 767 children had been abducted this year, of which 715 were recovered, adding that four of the cases were related to kidnapping for ransom.
It states that most of the children were kidnapped from Lahore, Faisalabad, Bahawalpur and Bahawal Nagar. Justice Mian Saqib Nisar on July 18 had taken suo motu notice of the kidnappings, with remarks that such incidents violated fundamental rights of the people.
