Remembering the humanitarian: Handful of lawmakers attend prayers for Edhi

Secretary to Speaker Attaullah Khan says the K-P Assembly was honoured that it was paid a visit to by Edhi in 2010

PESHAWAR: Only few members of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly showed up at the prayer session organised on Wednesday for Abdul Sattar Edhi by the speaker.

Not only were there few people, but Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, who had arranged the prayer session, was himself absent on the occasion. Only nine out of 123 members of the assembly were in attendance.

However, after the programme ended Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPAs Arbab Jahandad and Zareen Zia joined the lawmakers present there.

On the occasion, Jahandad announced he would provide a free of charge land to Edhi Foundation on the motorway near Peshawar Toll Plaza and an office, from where the ambulances would be managed, at his CNG station on GT Road.

Those who participated in the prayer session included K-P Assembly Deputy Speaker Dr Meher Taj Roghani, Minister for Food Qalandar Lodhi, Minister for Law Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi, Minister for Finance Muzaffar Said  and lawmakers Rashda Riffat of Jamaat-e-Islami, Ayesha Naeem of PTI and Pakistan Peoples Party’s Sardar Hussain. The assembly staff was also present there.

“People like Edhi are born in ages,” Roghani said on the occasion. “Nobel Peace Prize is a small thing for people like him who have achieved the height of humanity with their services.”

Secretary to Speaker Attaullah Khan said the K-P Assembly was honoured that it was paid a visit to by Edhi in 2010. “We and people of K-P are proud to have this distinction – his memories will remain with us forever.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2016.