Close X
Sunday, November 17, 2024
ADVT 
International

Celebrated Pakistani Philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi Passes Away In Karachi

Darpan News Desk IANS, 08 Jul, 2016 11:42 AM
    Celebrated humanitarian and Edhi Foundation Chairman Abdul Sattar Edhi passed away at the age of 92 in Karachi on Friday night, it has been learnt.
     
    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).
     
    Earlier in the day, the philanthropist's son Faisal Edhi and wife Bilquis Edhi informed the media that doctors at the facility have termed his condition critical as he felt difficulty in breathing while undergoing a scheduled dialysis process "after which the doctors decided to shift him on a ventilator".
     
    Born to a family of traders in Gujarat, Mr Edhi arrived in Pakistan in 1947.
     
    The state’s failure to help his struggling family care for his mother – paralysed and suffering from mental health issues – was his painful and decisive turning point towards philanthropy.
     
     
     
    Revered by many as a national hero, Mr Edhi created a charitable empire out of nothing. He masterminded Pakistan’s largest welfare organisation almost single-handedly, entirely with private donations.
     
    Content with just two sets of clothes, he slept in a windowless room of white tiles adjoining the office of his charitable foundation. Sparsely equipped, it had just one bed, a sink and a hotplate.
     
    “He never established a home for his own children,” his wife Bilquis, who manages the foundation’s homes for women and children, told in an interview this year.
     
    What he has established is something of a safety net for the poor and destitute, mobilising the nation to donate and help take action – filling a gap left by a lack of welfare state.
     
    Mr Edhi has been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize, and appeared on the list again this year – put there by Malala Yousafzai, Pakistan’s teenage Nobel laureate.

    MORE International ARTICLES

    US Cop Eric Parker's Assault Of Indian Grandfather: Mistrial Declared

    The police officer, Eric Parker, 26, was charged with violating the civil rights under colour of law of Sureshbhai Patel during an incident on Feb 6, just six days after he had arrived from India to take care of his grandson.

    US Cop Eric Parker's Assault Of Indian Grandfather: Mistrial Declared

    Indian-American Researcher's Heart Disease Project Gets $400,000 Boost

    Indian-American Researcher's Heart Disease Project Gets $400,000 Boost
    An Indian-American researcher at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) has received a $423,485 grant from the National Institutes of Health for his project related to ischemic heart disease, a media report said.

    Indian-American Researcher's Heart Disease Project Gets $400,000 Boost

    86-Year-Old Woman Injured In Crash Between Ambulance And Train In Langley Dies

    86-Year-Old Woman Injured In Crash Between Ambulance And Train In Langley Dies
    The woman was transported to hospital following the crash and died shortly after her arrival

    86-Year-Old Woman Injured In Crash Between Ambulance And Train In Langley Dies

    Ambulance And Train Collide In Langley, Patient Suffers Life-Threatening Injuries

    Ambulance And Train Collide In Langley, Patient Suffers Life-Threatening Injuries
    Two people are in hospital including a patient who was in an ambulance that crashed into a train in Langley, B.C.

    Ambulance And Train Collide In Langley, Patient Suffers Life-Threatening Injuries

    British Woman Racially Abused Me In Train: Sikh Youth

    British Woman Racially Abused Me In Train: Sikh Youth
    British police have launched a probe after a 25-year-old Sikh man reported that he was racially abused by a woman on board a train last month

    British Woman Racially Abused Me In Train: Sikh Youth

    Sikh Americans To Organise Diversity Festival In Fairfield, California

    Sikh Americans To Organise Diversity Festival In Fairfield, California
    Surjit Patar, an Indian Punjabi-language writer and poet is scheduled to be the special guest at the event.

    Sikh Americans To Organise Diversity Festival In Fairfield, California