“If the government did anything, we wouldn’t need to rely on people like Edhi,” said Mohammad Arif, who sells lace and buttons in Karachi. As he fills the vacuum, the state has even less incentive to step up. But that also creates something of a Catch-22. His foundation has been chided for its less-than-exact approach to accounting, but the public keeps contributing, a reflection, supporters say, of how much Pakistanis trust him.
#Bhikhari gujarati varta free#
It operates hospitals, mobile dispensaries, free kitchens, helicopters, airplanes and hundreds of “little white” ambulances resembling oversize bread boxes. He has been condemned by some Pakistanis as a communist, a madman, an Israeli agent or a bad Muslim for his work with “infidels” - his charity does not discriminate by religion, race or gender.ĭonations to the Edhi Foundation fund hundreds of centers nationwide for orphans, senior citizens, drug abusers, the mentally disabled, abused women, even injured animals. He has a picture of Karl Marx, as well as Mother Teresa, on his office wall.
Gruff and confident, Edhi refers to himself as a bhikhari, or beggar, and he wears his worn black tunic as a badge of honor. In this environment, a shrinking violet won’t make much headway, he says. Poverty, political instability, corruption, and attacks by Islamic militants, criminals and political enforcers are facts of life. The vast majority here struggle daily in a moribund economy. Known to some as Pakistan’s Mother Teresa, Edhi is a humanitarian light in a violent and troubled land.
He is far too busy caring for the sick, feeding the hungry, burying the dead. At 83, creature comforts don’t matter much to Abdul Sattar Edhi.
He owns a single set of clothing and often sleeps in a storage room - even though millions of dollars pass through his hands annually.
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