HYDERABAD, Aug 16: Renowned social worker Abdul Sattar Edhi said on Saturday that he could not forget the favours done to him by President Pervez Musharraf in his social work and said he often came to his rescue whenever he needed help.

Speaking to journalists at the Centre of Welfare Trust, Edhi said that Musharraf had had done him personal favours whenever he approached him. “I can’t show thanklessness to the president. I remember when he put his foot down when he asked him to get the custom duty of Rs150 million on import of roofs for earthquake affected people waived,” he said.

Apart from this, he said, the president always supported him. He said that Asif Ali Zardari, Nawaz Sharif and Pervez Musharraf should sit together to extricate the country out of the present crisis.

He was critical of people of Pakistan in general and said that majority of them evaded paying zakat. Unless everyone played a role Pakistan could not become a welfare state. “Price hike is artificial and it benefits a handful of capitalists,” he said.

He said that he had asked his welfare centres and volunteers to launch ‘begging mission’ for providing lungar (food) to the destitute. Rs250 million had been initially earmarked for this plan, he said.

Later, widows would be employed to prepare bread for the lungar as it would also serve to give them jobs.

Edhi has embarked upon a countrywide journey with 53 missing children to ensure their reunion with their families ahead of Eidul Fitr. He arrived here in a bus with the children, two of whom belong to Hyderabad, one each to Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Jacobabad and the rest to the districts of NWFP and Punjab.

Faisal was discharged after his parents approached Edhi in Karachi. The second child, Asif son of Yaqoob is said to be resident of Circular Building area off Risala Raod.

Local Edhi volunteers would take missing children to the localities pointed out by them to find their parents.