‘A great loss to humanity’
— Pakistan’s ‘Mother Teresa’ dedicated her life to fighting leprosy in the country
— ‘I’m not treating a disease, I’m treating a person’
Pakistan’s ‘Mother Teresa’ Dr Ruth Pfau, who dedicated her life to fighting leprosy in the country, was laid to rest at Karachi’s Gora Qabristan with full state honours on Saturday.
German-Pakistani national Dr Ruth breathed her last after prolonged illness on August 10, 2017 at the age of 87, in a private hospital in Karachi. Patients and workers of Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre (MALC), founded by Dr Ruth to serve the leprosy patients in Pakistan, gathered around her body on Saturday to take one last look at the humanitarian hero whose life-long struggle helped Pakistan defeat leprosy.
Among the dignitaries who attended the burial of Pakistan’s humanitarian hero were President Mamnoon Hussain, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman, Sindh inspector general, Karachi corps commander, DG Rangers, Sindh Governor Muhammad Zubair, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah – along with his cabinet, Consul-General of the German Consulate and Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation head Dr Adeeb Rizvi.
Armed forces carried the casket containing Dr Ruth’s body to St Patrick’s Cathedral in Saddar in a gun convoy – the highest military honour at a funeral, last accorded to humanitarian icon Abdul Sattar Edhi. The casket was draped in the national flag of Pakistan. The flag of Vatican City was also hoisted at the cathedral on Saturday morning, while the national flag of Pakistan remained at half-mast. A 19-gun salute was offered during the funeral proceedings, with contingents of all three armed forces present on the occasion.
Speaking to the media, Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar paid homage to Dr Ruth and her lifelong services to the underprivileged of the country. Akhtar said that Dr Ruth’s mission to serve humanity was exemplary, and urged the Pakistani government to continue her mission by allocating budget to fund her cause to end leprosy and other diseases in the country.
MQM-Pakistan’s Farooq Sattar said that Dr Ruth dedicated her life to battling leprosy in the country and termed her death a ‘great loss to humanity.’ Martha Fernando, who worked with Dr Ruth at MALC, said that the physician’s death was a great loss to humanity. “She is irreplaceable. We pray to God to send people like her again to this world so that they could continue serving the people,” she said.
Reminiscing about Dr Ruth’s days at the centre, MALC staff member Maryam Yaqoob said that the German medic would greet patients with flowers and cake every morning. She added that Dr Ruth would celebrate her birthday as patients day every year, but this year she celebrated it as family day. Dr Ruth visited Pakistan in the 1960s and ended up staying, adopting Pakistan as her new home as she dedicated her life to taking care of leprosy patients. She was granted Pakistani citizenship in 1988 and received numerous accolades for her services, including the country’s top civilian awards Hilal-i-Imtiaz and Hilal-i-Pakistan.
Presiding over the funeral mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral, the pastor paid glowing tribute to Dr Ruth and her selfless acts during a life, which she spent serving the country’s poor. “She lived and died a Pakistani. Wherever she went to treat people, she became one of them. She treated them all with love and compassion. She gave her life to others,” he said, recalling that she used to say, “I’m not treating a disease, I’m treating a person.”
“She brought a wonderful change in the society with her love and selflessness. She transformed people’s lives. She taught us all to take care of those who (could not care for themselves),” the pastor continued. “It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness,” he recalled another one of her sayings. The pastor urged people to take her work forward and to continue her mission of helping and serving others.
After her final rites were performed at the church, the coffin of ‘Pakistani Mother Teresa’ Dr Pfau was taken to Gora Qabaristan, Karachi’s oldest graveyard, where she was laid to rest.