Edhi: The richest poor man

Abdul Sattar Edhi will only live among the people; long after he has left us

For over 60 years, Abdul Sattar Edhi has shown us the power of one individual’s unwavering commitment and sincerity to the cause of humanity. As I write this, it pains me to say that Edhi has been robbed of just that.

When we first decided to conduct an interview of Edhi, we were too busy trying to coordinate the ‘perfect’ interview of arguably one of greatest living humanitarians in the world. We wanted everything to be perfect, down to the setting, the lighting and even the conversation. When we finally met him, everything was thrown out of the window.




A frail Edhi walked out of his room and sat down on the only sofa in the tiny room from where he operates his charity empire. It didn’t take long for us to realise that his story could not be told in a 30-minute interview. “I want to go now,” he said, looking at me dead in the eye before lowering his gaze towards the ground. The cameras rolled and so did we.

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou wrote. Such will be the legacy of Abdul Sattar Edhi. His story will only live among the people; long after he has left us.

The author tweets @HassaanKahn