For over six decades, he slept and dined next to the poor and destitute people he cared for and gave so generously to: in death, his family donated his corneas as a final gesture of the man known in Pakistan as the “Angel of Mercy.” But while most Pakistanis are still mourning iconic charity founder Abdul Sattar Edhi one month after his death, the 88-year-old has also faced harsh criticism by those who found him too liberal.
As a devoted Muslim, Edhi provided free welfare for millions of people in Pakistan, running a network of soup kitchens, nursing homes, orphanages, blood banks, clinics and women’s shelters across the country. He frequently challenged social mores.
In Pakistan, for example, it is still a taboo to have a child out of wedlock. Edhi, however, took in tens of thousands of abandoned children, setting up cradles outside of his charity across the country, urging people “not to kill” the babies but to give them to him instead.
Through his eponymous Edhi Foundation, founded in 1957, Abdul Sattar and his wife Bilquis ran Pakistani’s largest welfare organisation, as well as the country’s largest ambulance service.
On 8 July 2016, Edhi succumbed to kidney failure. His family have vowed to continue his work, asking that donations continue in his memory. For his successors, his legacy would not be an easy one to follow.
Born 1 January 1928, after opening his first clinic in 1951, Edhi became known as the “Father of Service”, his name becoming synonymous with caring for the most unprivileged of Pakistan’s 182 million people.
Aijaz Ahmed, former director of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER), said that while the man dubbed “the Mother Theresa of Pakistan” would be remembered for countless good deeds, his treatment of abandoned children was most laudable: “He managed to run the biggest orphanage [in Pakistan] where unwanted children were raised without any prejudice, hate or anger. Edhi even gave his own name to them as their father”.
Controversy in death
But Edhi also faced criticism which his family continues to fight – even today. Days after his death, Edhi’s son Faisal Edhi said negative propaganda against his late father and the Edhi Foundation might hamper efforts to collect funds.
Due to the late Edhi’s longstanding policy, the foundation does not take any government donations and instead relies solely on private donations. Faisal told journalists in Karachi on 13 July that certain groups are spreading rumours to keep people from donating to the foundation.
For example, the elder Edhi’s decision to donate his own corneas has also been labelled by his opponents as “a violation of Islamic injunctions”.
Pakistan’s Federal Shariat Court, however, ruled in favour of organ donations in its 2009 judgment, stating that an organ transplant with the free choice of the donor is acceptable in Islam, while the sale or purchase of human organs is not.
Edhi has also been accused by some religious figures of not following Islamic teachings and practicing measures that are prohibited in Islam, such as indirectly tolerating extra-marital affairs by accepting unwanted children in his orphanages.
Ibn Abdur Rehman (widely known as I.A. Rehman), a leading human rights activist and director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), said that hardline religious clerics were “opposed to Edhi because he attacked them and the government for dividing the people. Edhi was not against religion but he attacked religiosity relentlessly”.
But both in life and in death, Edhi was considered a national hero. The government honoured him with a 19-gun salute in a high-profile funeral ceremony at the National Cricket Stadium in Karachi on 9 July. The State Bank of Pakistan also issued a special coin in his name.
But Shafique Gigyani, a social activist based in Peshawar, expressed his cynicism about the intentions of the government.
“Edhi was providing services to the people that the state had failed to provide despite loud claims and millions of dollars of funds. Now they [the government] are just trying to take the credit,” he told Equal Times.
Edhi’s son Faisal, who has run the foundation for several years, humbly declined Equal Times’ call for an interview, saying he does not want to “cause any controversies” and instead wants to “focus on charity work”.
Faisal was, however, keen to stress that the foundation would continue to be run according to his late father’s wishes and that all the senior members who worked with his father would continue to be a part of the team.
Zohra Yusuf, chairperson of the HRCP indicated similar concern about a potential decline in funds for the Edhi Foundation.
“Edhi was unique: his work, personality and lifestyle was contrary in every respect to the norm in Pakistan. I hope those honouring him now will support his family in keeping his legacy,” she says.
