Abdul Sattar Edhi laid to rest

The celebrated humanitarian breathed his last on Friday after long fight with illnesses following kidney failure

KARACHI: Philanthropist, celebrated humanitarian and the icon of social and welfare service Abdul Sattar Edhi was laid to rest on Saturday as thousands attended his funeral prayers.

Edhi was buried in Edhi village as per his last wish as his funeral prayers were offered after Zuhr prayers following a guard of honour and a gun salute by the Pakistan Army.

His coffin, wrapped in the green national flag and covered with pink rose-petals, was carried on a military jeep into the national stadium in Karachi where there was a guard of honour as thousands paid tribute. Security officials said that a 21-gun salute was also offered.



Among those to attend the funeral was President Mamnoon Hussain, army chief General Raheel, Sindh governor Dr  Ishratul Ibad Khan, the chief ministers of Sindh and Punjab and many other national politicians, notables and servicemen.

As the state carriage leaves the stadium 19 guns salute begins- #state funeral Edhi Sahib

— Gen(R) Asim Saleem Bajwa (@AsimBajwaISPR) July 9, 2016

Edhi had been suffering from kidney failure since 2013 and was on dialysis.



PHOTO: AYSHA SALEEM/EXPRESS



PHOTO: AYSHA SALEEM/EXPRESS



PHOTO: AYSHA SALEEM/EXPRESS



PHOTO: AYSHA SALEEM/EXPRESS

General Raheel Sharif and Edhi's son Faisal saluted the coffin as it was carried by soldiers.

But thousands of ordinary people who planned to attend the funeral were stopped several kilometres away from the ceremony for security reasons.



According to his son, he could not undergo kidney transplantation due to his advancing years.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced a state funeral and day of national mourning in honour of the man who owned just two sets of clothes, but whose work uplifting the nation's destitute and orphans cemented his place in the hearts of Pakistan's masses.



Pakistani Army soldiers rehearse for the official ceremony for the funeral of renowned social worker Abdul Sattar Edhi in Karachi. PHOTO: AFP



The last time Pakistan held a state funeral was for military dictator General Zia ul-Haq in 1988.

#COAS Gen Raheel Sharif arrives Karachi to attend funeral ceremony of Abdus Sattar #Edhi Sahib

— Gen(R) Asim Saleem Bajwa (@AsimBajwaISPR) July 9, 2016

The federal and provincial governments expressed grief and announced three days of mourning.

The prime minister announced Edhi would be awarded Nishan-e-Imtiaz posthumously.



Edhi had pledged to donate his body organs. However, due to his long illness, his son has promised to donate only his eyes to any deserving person.

Regarding the donation, a spokesperson SIUT said that the eyes would enable two persons to regain their sight, with each receiving an eye of the great philanthropist.

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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, but made him the target of many ferocious smear campaigns.

Hardliners branded him an infidel and his work un-Islamic. His response was hard work and an obstinate asceticism, a bid to leave his enemies with no ammunition.

People gather at the National Stadium for the start of the funeral for philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi in Karachi, July 9, 2016. PHOTO: REUTERS

He slept in a windowless room adjoining the office of his foundation furnished with just a bed, a sink and a hotplate.

Edhi leaves behind his wife Bilquis and four children including son Faisal, who said his father's funeral will be held near Karachi on Saturday.

Born to a family of Muslim traders in Gujarat in British India, Edhi arrived in Pakistan after its bloody creation 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.

In the sticky streets in the heart of Karachi, Edhi, full of idealism and hope, opened his first clinic in 1951.



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 Pakistan 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.



Edhi has been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize, and appears on the list again this year -- put there by Malala Yousafzai, Pakistan's teenage Nobel laureate.

Frail and weak in his later years, he appointed his son Faisal as managing trustee in early 2016.