Abdul Sattar Edhi was a Pakistani humanitarian, philanthropist and ascetic who founded the Edhi Foundation, which runs the world’s largest volunteer ambulance network, along with various homeless shelters, animal shelters, rehabilitation centers and orphanages across Pakistan.
Edhi was known for his ascetic lifestyle, owning only two pairs of clothes, never taking salary from his organization and living in a small apartment next to his organization’s office.
Edhi resolved to dedicate his life to aiding the poor, and over the next sixty years, he single-handedly changed the face of welfare in Pakistan.
His wife Bilquis, also worked at an Edhi Trust dispensary.
He died on 8 July 2016 at the age of 88 due to complete kidney failure after having been placed on a ventilator.
He became the third person in Pakistan’s history to receive a state gun carriage funeral after Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Zia-ul-Haq. He was the only Pakistani without a state authority or a state role to receive a state funeral.
