KARACHI - Country’s greatest humanitarian and the founder of largest welfare organisation Abdul Sattar Edhi died Friday at the age of 92, his son confirmed, as tributes swiftly poured in for the humble man almost unanimously revered as a national hero.
"Abdul Sattar is dead," his son Faisal Edhi told an army of media men outside the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation. "My father was suffering from severe kidney problems and both of his kidneys had failed," he said.
Motivated by a spiritual quest for justice, over the years Edhi and his team created maternity wards, morgues, orphanages, shelters, and homes for the elderly, picking up where limited government-run services fell short.
His ethos of humanitarianism transcended religious and ethnic lines.
He slept in a windowless room adjoining the office of his foundation furnished with just a bed, a sink and a hotplate.
Faisal Edhi said his father’s funeral prayers would be held at New Memon Masjid near Bolton Market, Saddar, after Zohr prayers today. However, anticipating a very big congregation, the prayer place was later changed to National Stadium Karachi. It was further informed that Edhi would be buried with national flag wrapped around his coffin and a police squad would also give guard of honour to him.
He said Edhi would be laid to rest in the clothes he was wearing at the time of his death as per his wish. He further added Edhi also announced to donate his organs to needy people, but due to continuous medical treatment, only his corneas could be donated. “His corneas were taken out through an operation and would be donated tomorrow to a needy person,” he said.
Faisal said Edhi refused to go abroad for medical treatment and preferred to die with his own people.
The body of Abdul Sattar Edhi was shifted to Edhi morgue at Sohrab Goth. Faisal Edhi informed that he would be buried in the grave which was dug by Edhi himself.
Edhi was diagnosed with kidney failure in 2013, but had been unable to get a transplant due to frail health.
According to a statement from SIUT, Edhi had been under treatment there for 10 years. It further said Edhi was offered treatment abroad, but he always insisted on his treatment in the country.
Profile
Abdul Sattar Edhi was born to a family of traders in Indian state of Gujarat on January 1, 1924, and arrived in Pakistan in 1947.
When he was eleven, his mother became paralysed from a stroke and later died when Edhi was 19.
Edhi whose family left all his belongings in India to migrate to Pakistan inspired to work for charity and humanitarian work after his mother suffered from paralysis and mental health issues as the state had no institute to take care of such health issues.
He initiated his charity work with opening his first clinic in 1951 and then further moved along with his team to create maternity wards, morgues, orphanages, shelters and homes for the elderly, aiming to help those who cannot help themselves.
Abandoned children and the elderly, battered women, the disabled, drug addicts; Edhi's foundation now houses some 5,700 people in 17 shelters across the country.
The most prominent symbols of the foundation -- its 1,500 ambulances -- are deployed with unusual efficiency to the scene of extremist attacks that tear through the country with devastating regularity.
He was so widely respected that armed groups and bandits were known to spare his ambulances.
Meanwhile the foundation's adoption service sees unwanted children - many of them girls - left in cradles placed in front of every centre, where they can be safely cared for.
Without Edhi, "I would have had no life," Seher, 16, one of several thousand children who has grown up in the foundation's care, told AFP earlier this year.
As news broke of his death, social media lit up with tributes lauding him as "the greatest Pakistani".
Opposition leader Imran Khan described Edhi as a "noble soul", while military chief General Raheel Sharif expressed his "deepest sorrow and regret".
Edhi has been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize, and appears on the list again this year -- put there by Malala Yousafzai, teenage Nobel laureate.
Frail and weak in his later years, he appointed his son Faisal as managing trustee in early 2016.
"I have done a lot of work. I am satisfied with my life," Edhi told AFP in an interview earlier this year.
Family
Abdul Sattar Edhi was married in 1965 to Bilquis, a nurse who was working at the Edhi dispensary. The couple had four children, two daughters and two sons. Bilquis runs a free maternity home at the headquarters in Karachi and organises the adoption of illegitimate and abandoned babies.
Awards
Together with his wife, Bilquis Edhi, Abdul Sattar Edhi received the 1986 Ramon Magsaysay Award for public service. He is also the recipient of the Lenin Peace Prize and the Balzan Prize. In 2006, Institute of Business Administration Pakistan conferred a honoris causa degree of Doctor of Social Service Management for his services. In September 2010, Edhi was also awarded an honorary degree of doctorate by the University of Bedfordshire. In 1989, Edhi received Nishan-e-Imtiaz from the government of Pakistan.