On July 8, at 11:15pm, Pakistan lost one of its most revered figures. At the age of 88, Abdul Sattar Edhi was possibly the greatest philanthropist to ever grace this side of the subcontinent with his presence after the partition of 1947. The man built an empire out of nothing. That empire, however, doesn’t consist of palaces and other luxuries. What it includes is Pakistan’s largest network of ambulances, shelter homes for the elderly and orphans and much more. Edhi was the richest poor man. Words just aren’t enough to describe Pakistan’s most iconic philanthropist.
Born to a family of traders in India’s Gujarat, Edhi arrived in Pakistan after the bloody events the subcontinent witnessed in 1947. The death of his mother was the decisive turning point for the then 19-year-old Edhi, who opened his first clinic in Karachi in 1951. In his autobiography, ‘A Mirror to the Blind’, the great man says, “Social welfare was my vocation, I had to free it.” Edhi’s efforts bore fruits and he, almost single-handedly, engineered Pakistan’s largest welfare organisation, which also includes a network of over 1,500 ambulances.
Edhi, however, never took a single penny from the organisation. He had just two sets of clothes and slept in a windowless room next to the office of his charitable organisation. “He wished to be buried in the same clothes he used to wear. He also wanted to donate his body parts, but only his cornea can be donated as rest of the organs were not in healthy condition,” Edhi’s son Faisal Edhi had told reporters Sunday night. This shows that Edhi wanted to continue his philanthropic work even after death. About Edhi, The Huffington Post once wrote: “The world’s greatest living humanitarian may be from Pakistan.”
Edhi was diagnosed with kidney failure in 2013 but had been unable to get a transplant due to frail health. He was receiving treatment at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT). In June, Edhi had declined former president Asif Ali Zardari’s offer to travel abroad for medical treatment, saying he preferred to receive treatment in Pakistan. The legendary humanitarian had in the past declined Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s offer to donate 10 million Indian rupees to his charity after the safe return of Geeta, an Indian girl who was stranded in Pakistan and was raised by the Edhi Foundation.
Edhi had also been nominated for the Nobel Peace Price on several occasions. This year he was nominated by Pakistan’s teenage Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai. Edhi’s Nobel Peace Prize continues to generate debate but the issue at hand is that the citizens of Pakistan must uphold Edhi’s legacy by continuing his philanthropic work. Edhi’s work has to continue. Many have lost their Baba but the least we can do is to remain committed to Edhi’s cause as the man himself had once said, “You will find me among the people. My story is there.”