IN the absence of functioning mechanisms, certain sorts of criminal behaviour become inevitable. This is the lesson to be read into the arrest on Friday of a Peshawar doctor on the charge of selling newborn babies. After receiving a tip-off, a policewoman posing as a potential customer contacted the doctor, who was arrested upon producing an infant. Referring to statements given by the doctor, the police said that this was not the first time she had sold babies for sums upwards of Rs150,000.
The story points to lack of a system in place to handle such babies. Having worked as pediatrician in Pakistan for several years I had to deal with abandoned children and it was a difficult task and there was spacious room for such crimes to flourish..