10.1594/PANGAEA.997481Arshad, MuhammadMuhammadArshadCholistan University of Veterinary and Animal SciencesQazi, Adnan AhmadAdnan AhmadQazi0000-0002-8446-8342Cholistan University of Veterinary and Animal SciencesNaz, HumaHumaNazCholistan University of Veterinary and Animal SciencesWadood, FazalFazalWadoodCholistan University of Veterinary and Animal SciencesPANGAEA2026Binary ObjectFile content2025-02-01T00:00:00/2026-04-30T00:00:00Dataset10.1007/s00128-025-04122-w10.1016/j.scitotenv.2011.04.03810.3390/fishes100501986 data pointstext/tab-separated-valuesCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 InternationalData access is restricted (moratorium, sensitive data, license constraints)This dataset reports microplastic (MP) abundance in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) and muscle tissue of two freshwater fish species, Labeo rohita and Wallago attu, collected from two barrages on the Sutlej-Chenab river system in Punjab, Pakistan — Sulemanki Barrage and Panjnad Barrage. Tissue weight, MP count, and MP abundance per gram of tissue are reported as group-level summary statistics (mean ± standard error, SE) for each site×species×tissue combination, as presented in the source thesis; the number of individual fish underlying each summary value is not stated in the source and is not inferred here. Polymer identity of extracted particles (polyethylene, PET, polypropylene, and PVC) was supported by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) on representative particles, using a spectral library match threshold of ≥0.70; a summary of the FTIR peak assignments is included as a supporting subtable, but no raw FTIR spectra are part of this dataset. Individual-fish-level MP records are not available for deposition; no reconstruction, pooling assumption, or imputation has been applied to derive them. A supplementary derived subtable of screening-level microplastic contamination/risk index classifications (MPCF, MPPLI, Hi, MPRI) is included; these are literature-coefficient-dependent screening indicators, not validated toxicity measures. This dataset is derived from the PhD thesis of Muhammad Arshad, Cholistan University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Bahawalpur, Pakistan (2026).71.03333373.86666729.3530.3775