Abdul Sattar Edhi; Uneducated Yet Enlightened

By: Shazia Yousuf

“I do not have any formal education… what use is education when we do not become human beings [after being educated]? My school is the welfare of humanity.” Abdul Sattar Edhi.

These are the words from a lecture on “Emergency Management during disasters” delivered by Abdul Sattar Edhi, at the Aga Khan University. Abdul Sattar Edhi is a great philanthropist, who started off as a street hawker selling pencils and match boxes and now runs Edhi Welfare Trust – Pakistan’s largest welfare foundation.

Perspective - The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

By: Shazia Yousuf

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

These were the lines from the opening chapter of the novel “A Tale of Two cities” by Charles Dickens, a novel that revolves around the time of the French Revolution. I recalled these lines while I was waiting for my appointment with a lawyer at the City Court.