Wearing a long, white beard, and attired in militia shalwar kameez, eighty-year-old Abdul Sattar Edhi along with his wife, a daughter and a son, sits on a footpath in front of the mausoleum of founder of the nation, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah. The family is on a begging mission for the last one month, but not for themselves.
They are receiving donations from the citizens to feed some one million hungry people all over the country.
“I am begging to feed millions of people who cannot afford even two meals per day. My whole family is with me in this mission, which will continue even after my death,” Abdul Sattar Edhi, a renowned social worker told weekly
Pulse.
Edhi is running his Edhi Foundation, one of the second largest welfare organisation after Al-Khidmat Foundation in the country, where poverty has touched the ratio of 40 per cent due to consistent political and economic instability.
Hundreds of people have committed suicide due to grinding poverty, hunger, and unemployment during the last few years.
“I ask those people who cannot afford to have meals not to commit suicide, because it is one of the biggest sins. Come to our free meal centres along with your family members and have food everyday. We will never inquire anything about your economic or family background,” Edhi said.
Edhi Foundation has set up 325 free meal centres throughout Pakistan, where around one million people are being provided free lunch and dinner on regular basis.
Edhi Foundation has also been running Asia’s largest free ambulance service in sprawling Pakistan.
“I totally understand that millions of Pakistanis are reeling from extreme poverty. It is hard for them to see their children crying for food, and milk, but still there is no justification of committing suicide,” Edhi said and added that “whereas the political parties are engaged in dragging each others’ legs, we have decided to launch this begging mission to feed the poor people, which will continue even after my death”.
Edhi began the begging journey on June 19, 2008 from southeastern Balochistan province, the country’s poorest province, and passed through eastern Punjab, the richest and most populous province, the North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan, and southern Sindh province covering a distance of 3,000 kilometres in 25 days.
“I cannot explain in words the overwhelming response from the ordinary people. Pakistanis are the most generous people in the world vis-à-vis donations are concerned,” he observed.
As Edhi was talking, a veiled woman came and handed over a sum of $10,000 without revealing her identity. The weekly Pulse correspondent tried to talk to her, but she didn’t speak even a single word, and drove off in her huge vehicle.
This was not the first incident. A day before, two women donated Rs4.5 million, and Rs4 million to Edhi fund for hungry people even without revealing their identities.
“They didn’t even give their addresses. They told me that this is just to please Allah, and they will continue to support my mission in future also,” Edhi said.
Edhi collected Rs15 million within a day only in Karachi. The annual cost for feeding one million people is estimated at Rs1 billion.
Edhi is hopeful that he will achieve the target.
“We are begging for humanity. We don’t want any person to commit suicide just because he cannot feed himself and his family,” Bilquees Edhi, wife of Abdul Sattar Edhi, said.
Enjoying the assistance of his son, Faisal Edhi, and daughter, Kubra Edhi, Bilquees 70, looks after the affairs of free meal centres.
She recalls the various incidents that took place during their begging mission.
“I cannot forget a minor child who donated his pocket money which he had collected during the last one week,” Bilquees said. “I consider that donation bigger than any other”.
“We have devoted our lives for this cause. Our mission is not to let our people sleep without having a meal,” she maintained.
Edhi foresees a “bloody revolution” in the country if the ever-increasing poverty is not contained immediately.
“If we do not contain the ever-increasing poverty, I fear there will be a bloody revolution in the country, and nobody will be able to stop that,” he said.
According to official statistics, the poverty ratio in the country is 28 per cent, whereas independent statistics claim it is 40 per cent.
Khadim Ali, a labourer, is one of hundreds of people who have dinner at a free meal centre located in southern district of Karachi, known as Old Karachi.
Hailing from southern part of Punjab, which is considered the poorest part of the country’s richest province, Khadim says he doesn’t take lunch because there are plenty of hungry people who need food.
“I know I can survive by having breakfast and dinner. I leave the lunch for plenty of other hungry people,” Khadim said.
As a breakfast, Khadim buys a Paratha (traditional bread baked in oil) for Rs10, and a cup of tea for Rs5 from a hotel, and avoids lunch.
“I earn Rs5,000 per month. I have four children, and a wife back home. A dinner costs at least Rs30 to Rs40, that means I spend Rs1,200 per month, which I cannot afford,” he said.
Khadim pays Rs800 for a small room he has rented in a slum locality of Karachi.
“I send Rs3,500 per month to my family back home. If I have dinner here on my own, my family can’t survive. That is why I have my dinner here,” he added.
Khadim dubs the free meal centre as a blessing.
“This is a blessing for people like us. We cannot give him (Edhi) anything in return except prayers. Our prayers and with him,” he said.
Sabir Baloch, a homeless drug-addict, is another beneficiary of this free meal centre.
Hailing from southeastern city of Turbat, Sabir was kicked out by his family some five years ago after he refused to give up using drugs.
“I am happy here. I get food everyday, and that’s enough for me”, Sabir said and refused to talk more.
