Bilquis Edhi declared ‘person of the decade’

Pakistan’s towering philanthropist and humanitarian Bilquis Edhi has been declared the ‘Person of the Decade’, along with human rights rapporteur of the UN Prof Yanghee Lee and the US ethicist Stephen Soldz.

A spokesperson for the Edhi Foundation told APP that as per the domino effect verdict, announced on Friday by the Impact Hallmarks, Bilquis Edhi was declared the most impactful person of the first two decades of the 21st century.

Bilquis Bano Edhi is a professional nurse and she heads the Bilquis Edhi Foundation. She has spent more than six decades of her life in serving humanity in need. Her charity has saved over 42,000 unwanted babies so far by placing "jhoolas" [cradles] at the Edhi Homes and centres across the country.

Called the Mother of Pakistan, Bilquis Edhi has already been given various national and foreign awards including Hilal-e-Imtiaz, the Lenin Peace Prize, Mother Teresa Memorial International Award for Social Justice (2015), and the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service, she received along with her husband Abdul Sattar Edhi in 1986.

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The Impact Hallmarks, an international web-based organisation that conducted the process, said in its announcement that the three persons – Bilquis Edhi, Prof Yanghee Lee and Stephen Soldz – have “stretched and segmented the top of the decade’s impact hallmarks and the opinion poll’s top ‘triarchy’ as well”.

Another honour the contest brought for the country was declaration of another Pakistani – an erudite, a polymath and a discoverer, Prof Aurangzeb Al Hafi – among “Top of the Top Ten” over his scientific discoveries. He was listed on sixth slot among the most impactful persons of the world.

The three scientific discoveries shortlisted by the Impact Hallmarks were: the first-ever scientific demonstration of Magneto-Hydro-Tropism (MHT), his IRT Model of Terato-kinetics, and the first methodological baselines engrossed annotation-broadsheet with reference to the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak, which was made available to the World Health Organisation, and others concerned on March 3, 2020, for the academic considerations.

According to a media release, issued by the SAARC-ASEAN Post-Doctoral Academia, the IRT Model of Terato-kinetics has proved the adverse effects of drugs on newborn and unborn babies beyond any doubt. It said that if the study recommendations are implemented in letter and spirit, disabilities among 687-796 million unborn or newborn babies could be avoided.

According to the organisation’s announcement, “Ten extravagantly towering silhouettes have pixelated the rock-solid images and inimitable descriptions onto the large canvas of the first two decades of the 21st century.

“They stood out… by virtue of the impact they have had on munificent realms and bounteous vistas of the first bi-decadal course of the new century and the new millennium as well.”

Besides the three topmost “Persons of the Decade”, the verdict announcement called seven other persons “true patrons of change, the flag-bearers of righteousness and the domino effect architects of the Top-10 of the impact hierarchy of the decade.”

They include: Dr Muang Zarni — human rights activist (Myanmar), Graca Machel — an advocate of women & children rights (Mozambique), Greta Thunberg — the youngest climate activist (Sweden), Jacinda Ardern — 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand, Maggie Doyne — Founder of The BlinkNow Foundation (Nepal), Prof Aurangzeb Hafi — polymath, discoverer (Pakistan), Pushpa Basnet — social worker (Nepal).

The remaining ten of the 20 finalists, categorised as the domino effect runners-up include: Ban Ki Moon — former UN secretary general (South Korea), Dr Francois Englert — scientist, discoverer (Belgium), Dr Neil Turok — physicist, theorist (South Africa), Dr Peter Higgs — scientist, discoverer (United Kingdom), Engin Altan Duzyatan — television actor, world celebrity (Turkey), Kofi Annan — former UN secretary general (Ghana), Nitesh Jangir, student, inventor (India), Rayvon Stewart — student, inventor (Jamaica), Steve Brachman — journalist (US).