Obituary of Sattar Edhi is baseless
By Syeda Munawara Qazi
Dhaka, Bangladesh: Indian media made Pakistan Foreign Office a laughing stock over blunder of releasing baseless obituary about Sattar Edhi.
Indian media is making mockery of Foreign Office of Pakistan over releasing baseless information about the death of world renowned philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi who is hospitalized in Karachi and recovering from his illness.
It may be mentioned that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan and its Foreign Office (FO) based in Islamabad is known for showing “delayed response” to important regional developments and usually releases statements as the “last one to respond”.
The recent prime example of slumbering over sensitive and significant issues was delayed response of Pakistan’s Foreign Office over the killing of Chief of Afghan Taliban Mullah Mansur Akhtar in Baluchistan when the first statement from FO was issue over after one day of killing of Mullah Mansur in a US drone strike and Advisor to Prime Minister of Pakistan Sartaj Aziz confirmed death of Mullah Mansur after one day of announcement of new chief by Afghan Taliban who placed new Ameer (chief) Mullah Habitullah after two days of the death of Mullah Mansur Akhtar.
This time Pakistan Foreign Office was pro-active for releasing an obituary about the death of renowned philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi based on wrong information and withdrew the obituary within half an hour. Pakistan Foreign Office released an obituary on Saturday June 18, 2016 lauding the services of Abdul Sattar Edhi who is in hospital and recovering from his illness.
In its obituary, FO said:
“Today, with the sad demise of legendary philanthropist Maulana Abdul Sattar Edhi, everyone in Pakistan, Pakistanis abroad and millions of others, are in mourning. The iconic Edhi saheb was a soul who spent his whole life engaged in the noble cause of serving humanity. He lived for others,” Aziz had been quoted as saying in the now-withdrawn statement.
We are deeply saddened to lose an Ambassador of Pakistan, whose work in Pakistan and abroad projected the country’s true image and was a matter of great pride for all of us… He will be remembered as we remain indebted to him”.
Once the statement was released by electronic media of Pakistan, a strong rejoinder came from Edhi Foundation and son of Abdul Sattar Edhi who said that FO statement was baseless and his father was (is) alive. Faisal Edhi rejected reports. Faisal said his father was (is) feeling better and that he was taken to hospital for routine dialysis.
Sattar Edhi in response to this baseless news released by Pakistan Foreign Office twitted that “Looks like government of Pakistan is in hurry to bury me (Edhi)”
Looks like government of Pakistan is in hurry to bury me. #Edhi is still alive and better. Keep praying all. Thanks pic.twitter.com/9QA9lLKCHL
— Abdul Sattar Edhi (@EdhiAbdulSattar) June 18, 2016
Ironically, Pakistani electronic media released obituary as headline story without getting confirmation about news from Edhi Foundation.
FO of Pakistan while facing sheer embarrassment withdrew obituary with following statement:
“We are withdrawing the press release which was based on wrong information passed to this office. Inconvenience is regretted”.
Almost every English, Bangla, Urdu and Hindi channel of India and Bangladesh made Pakistani Foreign Office a laughing stock and ran stories over alleged incompetency of Pakistan Foreign Office and his alleged habit to release baseless information.
