Google honours saviour of lepers

Islamabad : Google, the most popular search engine worldwide, on Monday honoured German-Pakistani Dr Ruth Katherina Martha Pfau, the saviour of lepers, on her 90th birthday by dedicating a doodle on its homepage.

The doodle showed an animation of the German-born missionary (1929-2017), who is hailed as the 'Mother Theresa of Pakistan', looking after a leprosy patient as the sun sets behind them.

In 1960, aged 31, Dr Pfau decided to dedicate the rest of her life to Pakistanis and their battle against leprosy outbreaks after witnessing the horror of the disease.

Her efforts brought leprosy under control in Pakistan, which became the first Asian country to earn that status. Dr Pfau received numerous honours for her work, including Pakistan’s top civilian awards, including ‘Hilal-i-Imtiaz’ and ‘Hilal-i-Pakistan’, and the German Staufer Medal, even the Pakistani government granted her the country's citizenship in recognition of her services to the country.

This is not the first time that Google has featured a doodle for any Pakistani event.

On August 14 last year, too, it dedicated its doodle to celebrate Pakistan’s Independence Day.

The search engine has celebrated the birthdays of legendary musician Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi, Ghazal maestro Mehdi Hassan and pop singer Nazia Hasan with its doodle. Also, it paid rich tribute to Pakistan’s prolific artist Syed Sadequain Ahmed Naqvi with doodle on his 87th birthday in 2017.