Adil Najam

My posts over the last few days have all been designed to build up to this (here, here and here).

Irrespective of whether Abdul Sattar Edhi is a Pakistani or not, irrespective of how much most Pakistanis hold his selfless zeal in reverence – and irrespective also of all the ways in which a few have tried to malign him – I believe that Abdul Sattar Edhi deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. I need your help in putting together a nominations package.

I do not wish to make this a nationalistic thing. He would not like that. For me it is a humanistic thing. As he has made clear again and again, humanism and humanitarianism is more important than everything else; certainly it is bigger than nationalism.

Adil Najam

Suspense over. Yes, so many of you were right. Our mystery man IS Abdul Sattar Edhi.

I have really enjoyed this ATP Quiz thread (here and here). I had hoped that this method will get people more engaged than just writing a post on Edhi sahibs work. I also really wanted people to read and think about the passages that I had included from his autobiography – Edhi: A Mirror to the Blind. They are thought provoking passages and worthy of our attention. I was surprised by many things in the book, and it is obvious from the comments that so were you. A lot of you actually got the answer fairly early on but it was interesting to see how some of the facts were so surprising and so contrary to our popular perception of the man that it kept many others wondering. So, first of all, thank you for your participation and your patience.

For those who have not read the book, this should be an invitation to read it. It is compelling reading. I should say, however, that I find the book (written by Tehmina Durrani, who had earlier written My Feudal Lord) to be rather badly written. This is a pity. Because the material in the book is quite spell-binding. For those who have met or talked to Edhi sahib, the most wonderful portions of the book are the passages where you can actually see him talking. In your mind’s eye you can see him waving his hands, that twinkle in his eyes, that polite smile hiding a resoluteness and firmness that is now legendary amongst those who have worked with him. However, there are also long passages that read much more like ‘Tehmina Durrani’ than ‘Abdul Sattar Edhi’ (in terms of diction, style, and form). I do not mean to be harsh, but I do think that the book needed a better editor and Edhi sahib needed a better biography.

That said, for the content alone it is still a spell binding book and most highly recommended.

Adil Najam

Thank you to those who have so actively responded to our current ATP Quiz where we gave you some quotes and asked you to guess who they are from (here). Many of you have gotten to the bottom of this, but others are still further away. For those who have not seen the first set of hints, do so here; also, a number of comments already posted on that may be helpful.

Largely becasue I wanted to post the following quotes anyhow, and partly by way of giving more clues to teh identity of the person we are thinking of, here is a little more from him.

Let me first finish the story where we left it – his going to Gen. Zia ul Haq’s Majlis i Shura. Here is what he did there:

On the 12th of July 1984, I finally stood up to speak and the venerated members of the assembly, along with General Zia ul Haq straightened up to listen…. “You formed this Shura according to Islamic concepts… [but] when there are no human rights, domestic laws, facilities for health and education, protection for domestic servants and kisaans, there is also no Shura.

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