Adil Najam
Hassan Abbas from WatanDost just alerted me to this most deplorable and shocking news. According to the Daily Times:
Renowned social worker Abdul Sattar Edhi was interrogated by US immigration officials at the JF Kennedy Airport in New York, who also seized his passport and other documents, a private TV channel reported on Monday. Edhi told Geo News that US immigration officials had questioned him for eight hours at the airport. “They asked me why I don’t reside permanently in the US despite having a green card,†he said. “I told them that I’m a social worker and I have to travel extensively around the world, and so cannot live there permanently,†he added.
Edhi said he had faced the same behaviour from US immigration officials when he visited America in June last year. According to Geo News, the immigration officials allowed him to leave following the intervention of Pakistani officials, but did not return his passport and other documents. Edhi said the US officials, through a letter, had also asked him to appear in court for a hearing on February 20. Separately, talking to News One television channel, Edhi said US authorities apparently wanted to hinder his social work. He said he, his wife and their granddaughter had been living in a small room for the last month as the US authorities were refusing to return his passport.
In an earlier news story, Dawn had reported:
US authorities have threatened Pakistan’s most respected citizen Abdul Sattar Edhi with deportation, he said. “I just received a telephone call from someone, telling me that I am being deported,†Mr Edhi, who is now in New York told Dawn. He said he was stopped at the airport in London when he tried to board a plane for New York on Jan 8.
Mr Edhi then contacted the US Embassy in London who gave him a letter which allowed him to proceed to New York. The letter also advised him to see US authorities on Feb 18 to clear whatever misunderstandings they may have about him. Mr Edhi arrived in New York on Jan 9 and was detained at the airport for eight hours. “They were questioning me why I look the way I look,†said Mr Edhi who has a long beard and always wears traditional Pakistani dress along with a traditional cap.
“They also wanted to know why I visit the United States so regularly,†he said. “I told them I am a social worker. What else I do? I only do social work,†said Mr Edhi who has branches of his trust in several US cities. “If they do not let me work here, I will work somewhere else.â€
ATP know of my reveration – aqeedat – for the amazing humanitarian work that Abdul Sattar Edhi does (also see here, here and here).
Indeed, this admiration is shared not only by many other Pakistanis but by so many around the world who follow daily miracles that Edhi Foundation performs in some of the most telling places in the world. A look at the over 250 comments on my post about him which suggested that he should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize is testimony to this admiration, indeed devotion.
Here are excerpts from what I had written then; events since then have again highlighted just how important a human treasure he is not just to Pakistan but to the world:
Here is a man who has dedicated his whole life to serving the most marginalized and the most wretched in society. The destitutes, the mentally ill, corpses left by the roadside, children abandoned at his doorsteps, women kicked out by their families. When there is no one to go to, there is always Edhi Sahib to go to.
As importantly, he has done this – in his words – ‘wholesale’. He has single handedly built – literally by begging – a social services structure at a national scale. Bigger than what governments have. He has never taken a ruppee as salary himself. He lives in a two room apartment that most middle class Pakistanis would not call home and he oversees the largest ambulance network in the world, now with airplanes and helicopters, a multi-million dollar enterprise of relief, of goodwill, and of humanitarianism. If he does not deserve the Nobel Award, I do not know who does.
The Nobel Peace Prize has not come yet. But this humiliation has. Deplorable.
This is shameful and embarrasing especially for those who are trying their damn most to encourage peace and dialogue between the US and Muslims.
The only thing Edhi sahib is guilty of is caring and working for other people, we need to get this out to all people muslim and non musli, pakistani and non pakistani – the racist and bigoted treatment Maulana Edhi has suffered is a blot against us all – let us defend Edhi regardless of our backgrounds, write to all your freinds with a brief description of who Edhi sahib is and why we defend him and let all protect him and people like him.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=637197927
Is there any way we can contribute in getting a wider attention….I think this is the last nail in the coffin of our national pride….or whatever is left of it. Thanks ATP for letting us know but, please don’t get me wrong, what can we do about it except for mulling over it.
@ How about Geo TV’s Bhands and Mirassis ?
have they spoken about this disgusting news
on Edhi or they keep silence as usual, American
synthetic donkeys.
There is no need to get emotional about it. Let us look at this incident objectively bearing following points in mind:
1. There is no doubt Edhi is the greatest philanthropist of Pakistan and well known here.
2. It does not mean Edhi will be equally well known in America.
3. In America there are hundreds of philanthropists who give away in charity billions of dollars.
4. Knowledge of an average American about a third world country’s history and geography is quite understandably poor.
5. What happened in America on 9/11 they have to take all kind of precautionary measures to protect themselves from repetition of a similar incident.
6. The precautionary measures adopted by them are bound to cause some inconvenience to people travelling to America and to their own citizen living in America.
7. There is rule of law in America unlike our own country. Whatever the law, good or bad, will be applicable to all, rich or poor, big or small without discrimination. Just because Edhi is a great man does not mean he will be above the law.
9. Green Card is a previlage which America so genrously grants people of other countries. It has every right to see this previlage is not misused.
10. I am not sure if their checking is random or involves some profiling. They deny profiling. I would say they would be quite justified if they do some profiling. After all it can’t be denied that a large number of terrorists are operating in and from Pakistan and all terrorists happen to be Muslims though all Muslims are not terrorists.
11. We are raising such an hue and cry over this matter as if we are the champion of human rights.
In the end I would just say that it indeed saddened me to see what happened to a person like Edhi but I do not blame America for it. I blame ourselves for it.
@RJ
Mr. Edhi visits U.S. frequently and has many Edhi Foundation offices there. His Green Card has NOT lapsed. His only crime is his