LARKANA: Ali Anwar Khokhar or Edhi of Larkana is all alone in performing social welfare work since last 30 years during which he has reunited as many as 11000 kids and women with their families.
Khokhar has now become older but his sentiments are still young and he is doing his utmost to deliver for the betterment of the society. Holder of Pride of Performance, 75 years Khokhar said that he has prepared youngsters from his own family including his son Younis Ali Khokhar to carry forward his mission to next generations. He has engaged himself in finding lost children, girls, men and women and then finding their parents, relatives and heirs so that they can meet and live happy life together. He is running a social welfare center along with an ambulance on airport road plot which was donated to him by the then deputy commissioner but he started his work from a mosque located near the shrine of Qaim Shah Bukhari by informing the residents on its loud speakers about the missing or found child etc. and finding his/her parents.
He said he used to sweep the mosque, fill its water pots and then tell the people about the kids found by him from streets but the mosque authorities became angry and asked him to leave. He recalled that after going out of the mosque, I had no money to buy a bicycle then he used to go by foot street by street and bazaar by bazaar while holding a big bell in his hands & ringing it informing everyone about the found child. He said that he did not sit down until & unless he was successful in finding the relatives or parents of the boy.
He said due to his untiring efforts he got coverage in a London’s newspaper The Guardian and TV channels and in some channels he was called ‘Edhi of Larkana’ as well but he said he should not be affiliated with Edhi because he was a great man and his work has no match around the world. Khokhar said that my Allah wanted me to serve the ailing people who are suffering for no fault of theirs and I am doing what I should do for them with the help of Almighty Allah. He said he never thought of having huge institution like Edhi because my work is only confined to finding lost children.
Though Khokhar is a PPP worker but it is regrettably noted that he has never received any grant or help from the peoples party despite the fact that it has remained in power for decades. Some rooms are built in the center where unclaimed children & women are staying with his family but now he intends to construct four more rooms for which he has no funds. He said that social welfare work he started much earlier but since 1988 he initiated this noble work by procuring a cycle which is still with him. He said so far as many as 11000 lost kids have met with their parents with his efforts which also include girls & women and has never got anything from anybody adding this all is done to seek mercy of The Great Giver.
He said in 2001 the then Larkana deputy commissioner Muhammad Arif gave him a plot measuring 4000 sq. ft. for continuing social work and in 2003 Pride of Performance Award was bestowed on him by Pervaiz Musharraf for which he was called to Islamabad on August 23 and then also I got an ambulance.