KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will issue a special coin in honour of the country’s most celebrated humanitarian, Abdul Sattar Edhi, who passed away last week.
Born to a family of traders in India’s Gujarat, Edhi arrived in Pakistan after the bloody events the subcontinent witnessed in 1947. The death of his mother was the decisive turning point for the then 19-year-old Edhi, who opened his first clinic in Karachi in 1951.
In his autobiography, ‘A Mirror to the Blind’, the celebrated humanitarian says, “Social welfare was my vocation, I had to free it.” Edhi’s efforts bore fruits and he, almost single-handedly, engineered Pakistan’s largest welfare organisation, which also includes a network of over 1,500 ambulances.
Edhi was diagnosed with kidney failure in 2013 but had been unable to get a transplant due to frail health. He was receiving treatment at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) at the time of his death.
In June, Edhi had declined former president Asif Ali Zardari’s offer to travel abroad for medical treatment, saying he preferred to receive treatment in Pakistan.
The humanitarian passed away at the age of 88 in Karachi on Friday night.
The iconic social worker was given a guard of honour and a 19-gun salute by the Pakistan Army as his body was taken away from the National Stadium after a state funeral. His body was then taken to Edhi Village, where he was laid to rest.
