World media on Saturday paid tributes to Abdul Sattar Edhi for his services for the suffering humanity. Washington Post in a report said that Abdul Sattar Edhi was a beacon of hope in a country too often mired in despair. He was an ascetic in a country where politicians regularly skim millions of dollars through corruption; a humanitarian in a country rife with sectarian hatred and violence; and ultimately the provider of public services in a country where the government often fails to provide even the most basic ones, like adequate hospitals and ambulances.
In the course of his lifetime, he had gone from being a refugee to running Pakistan's most renowned philanthropic organisation, the Edhi Foundation. Established in 1951, the foundation currently runs hospitals, orphanages, morgues, legal aid offices, centres for the abandoned and drug-addicted, and has almost 2,000 ambulances, which it dispatches to the scenes of the terrorist attacks that occur with alarming frequency across the country. The New York Times said, the Pakistani philanthropist's name became synonymous with charitable causes and he achieved an almost saintly status.
In a country where government-run services have been glaringly ill equipped to deal with humanitarian crises, Edhi's social welfare system has become a trusted household name. Wall Street Journal said many Pakistanis considered Abdul Sattar Edhi, a national icon. The Guardian newspaper said that Abdul Sattar Edhi was "angel of mercy" for his social work that also won international acclaim. Edhi came from humble origins and remained a quiet and modest man all his life, which in part was what, inspired the nationwide love for him among Pakistanis. Al Jazeera in a report said Edhi's war was against prejudice, cruelty. No politics, no Fatwas, no greed, just humanity for the sake of humanity.
BBC in a lengthy report on the life and services of Edhi said he came from a family of Gujarati traders and arrived in Pakistan in 1947. He decided to take up philanthropy after seeing how the state failed to help his family care for his paralysed and ill mother. Correspondents say Edhi was Pakistan's most respected figure and was seen by some as almost a saint. In 2014 he told the BBC that simplicity, honesty, hard work and punctuality were the cornerstones of his work.
He was also known for his humble lifestyle - he reportedly owned just two sets of clothes and lived in a small and sparsely-furnished room next to the office of his foundation. VOA said the 88-year-old philanthropist founded the country's biggest welfare organisation, the Edhi Foundation, with almost no money. His work brought in a flood of donations that built the Edhi Foundation into a huge health care network of hospitals, orphanages, clinics and women's shelters.
Edhi was known for his ascetic, humble lifestyle and is widely credited for having created more public benefits for the Pakistani people than a succession of elected leaders since the country was founded in 1947. He was often called Pakistan's "Angel of Mercy."