Bilquis Edhi, a well-known Pakistani humanitarian, died on Friday in Karachi at the age of 74. She moved to a hospital in Karachi and had been admitted for three days after her blood pressure rapidly fell down. Bilquis had been ill for the past month, according to an Edhi Foundation spokeswoman.She collaborated with her late husband, Abdul Sattar Edhi, the founder of Pakistan’s most well-known social services network. She was a major influence in assisting Pakistan’s needy and helpless citizens, particularly women and children.

Brief Profile

Bilquis Edhi was a professional nurse and the founder of the Bilquis Edhi Foundation. She was born on August 14, 1947, in Indian Gujrat. In April 1966, she married Abdul Sattar Edhi. After Abdul Sattar Edhi died in 2016, Bilquis Edhi and their children continued the charity network. That includes the ambulance service in Karachi after Pakistan’s independence in 1947. When she and her spouse married, at that time, she was a young nurse. She dedicated more than six decades of her life to helping those in need. By placing “jhoolas” [cradles] at Edhi Homes and centers across the country, her organization has saved over 42,000 unwanted newborns. From her marriage to Abdul Sattar Edhi, she has four children: Faisal, Kubra, Zeenat, and Almas.

Bilquis Edhi as a Great Philanthropist

Bilquis Edhi and her husband Abdul Satar Edhi lived on the premises of their organization’s offices in Karachi’s inner city. Where they started a network of services. That included ambulances, emergency assistance, homeless shelters, and orphanages. They also provide the services of unclaimed body burial, animal shelters, and blood banks. Both husband and wife remained committed to their charity work despite death threats and attacks on their services. She was a trained nurse, who managed maternity clinics and set up baby cradles outside Edhi Foundation all over Pakistan. In these cradles, women can leave their unwanted kids and know they’d be safe. Despite religious conservatives’ complaints that their existence encouraged out-of-wedlock births, the infant cradles remained in place.

It is written on the hand-lettered placards, “Don’t Kill leave the infant in the crib alive”. Please don’t murder the baby… Give the infant a chance to live.”

After Abdul Sattar Edhi died in 2016, Bilquis Edhi and their children continued the charity network.

And continued the services including a one-man ambulance service in Karachi immediately after Pakistan’s independence in 1947. Faisal Edhi said that her mother, gave him courage after his father died. He paid respect to Bilquis Edhi and stated she had been in charge of the Edhi Foundation’s operations.

On Friday, Sindh government spokesperson Murtaza Wahab announced in his tweet. That SindhGovt has declared tomorrow as a day of mourning to pay its respects to Bilqees Edhi’s efforts in the field of social service.”

Many celebrities and polititions expressed their grief for lose of such an honourable personality. Hadeeqa Kyani is on of them. She adopted her son from Bilquis Edhi. Hadeeqa Kyani expressed her feeling in such heart warming words,”

Hadiqa Wrote, “Mrs. Bilquis Edhi was a woman unlike any other. She took the world’s burden on her back and stood up to simply help the world become a better place. I believe that Allah (SWT) made her a vessel of aid to people in need, I also believe that Allah (SWT) made her the vessel, my source, to bring me to my son Naaday Ali. She trusted me with being a mother and I, like so many others touched by Mrs. Edhi’s grace, will forever be grateful. I pray for her peace and I pray her legacy carries on.

Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un ”