Placentas’ case: judgement on bail plea reserved

ISLAMABAD: A district and sessions court, while hearing a case regarding smuggling of human placentas involving three Chinese nationals, was informed by a defence counsel on Thursday that placenta had not been classified as a vital human organ and was used for legitimate medical purposes. The Additional District and Sessions Judge, Muhammad Afzal Majoka, heard the arguments on post-arrest bail of the accused in the case registered under Sections 9 and 11 of the Human Organs and Tissues Transplantation Act, 2010. The court reserved its verdict after the defence and prosecution completed their arguments. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on June 27 had arrested five suspects, including three Chinese citizens, Li Ganglei, Wang Bao, and Pengfei Gao, as well as two Pakistani suspects, Waqas Sarwar and Qaiser Hanif, in connection with the case. During the hearing, the defence counsel said that the placenta was not counted as a vital human organ, and that it was used for legitimate medical purposes. He further told the court that the tissues present in the placenta were also used in hair transplants as well as other medical procedures. To this, the judge inquired whether he had a hair transplant and whether the tissues of the placenta might be used in the transplant procedure. The defence lawyer replied that there were different medical techniques for hair transplants; if the doctor had carried out your hair transplant procedure using the relevant technique, then 100 percent placenta-derived would have been used. The lawyer further argued that human vital organs included eyes, kidneys, etc. The gallbladder was a human organ, but if doctors removed it during surgery, then it did not fall within the definition of human organs. Hospitals either incinerated or buried the gallbladder after removal by the doctors, he said. Judge Majoka remarked that his gallbladder had also been removed during surgery and said he did not know what had happened to it after removal. The lawyer said that the agency might also have arrested someone in your case and sent him to jail. The FIA prosecutor told the court that over 1, 000 placentas had been recovered, and all the accused arrested at the scene. “We have also submitted the report of medical experts before the court, ” he said. He requested the court to reject the post-arrest bail application of the accused. The court, after hearing the arguments, reserved its judgement. Copyright Business Recorder, 2026

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