The Fatima Jinnah Mystery - writeup mine
"How fair do you want the elections to be Sir" The question came from senior civil servant G. Muenuddin then working as Chief Election Commissioner. It was posed to the all powerful President of Pakistan Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan, N.Pk., H.J., in 1964. Ayub had not yet fallen out with the powers that be nor was there any major or visible internal dissent. Nor yet had be suffered from pulmonary embolism till then. What he therefore said was the law. "As fair as practicable" came the cryptic reply. The Field Marshal had a formidable opponent. It was no less a person than the Founder of Pakistan's sister Ms. Fatima Jinnah. The orders had been issued nevertheless. Mueenuddin was a senior member of the Indian Civil Service whose name appeared third in the gradation list of ICS turned CSP officers, appearing immediately after Justice A. R. Cornelius and Justice S. A. Rehman. Ayub Khan ruled Pakistan exclusively through his civil servants. His reliance on them was indeed so great that Yahya Khan erroneously believing that the civil service was responsible for Ayub's downfall, tried to cow them down and fell on his face. Anyway to cut a long story short, the elections could and would only be that much fair as was consistent with Ayub Khan winning them. He won - although Ms. Jinnah swept Karachi, Dacca and Chittagong!
But let us go a little back in time before this uncanny conversation. It is 1947 and the Indian sub-continent is about to be divided. A fierce argument is in process between two men. One is not only the Viceroy and Governor General of India but also the cousin of the British monarch, Lord Mountbatten. The other is a polished and brilliant lawyer in the old Anglo-Saxon tradition who liked to be called plain Mr. Jinnah. Mountbatten was trying to force and intimidating Jinnah to accept him as first Governor General of Pakistan just the way Nehru had accepted him in India. Jinnah wanted to be Governor General himself and had an intense dislike and distrust of Mountbatten who mentioned, "But Mr. Jinnah, all the powers will be with the Prime Minister". Mr. Jinnah firmly replied, "In Pakistan I will be Governor General and the Prime Minister will do what I tell him to do." The argument was over. Some opine that this decision led to the inclusion of Gurdaspur in India giving it a clear route to Jammu and Kashmir, as Mountbatten tampered with the Radcliffe Award.
But let us move on. Pakistan came into being - Jinnah was revered and the governance of Pakistan proceeded as planned by him without even an inkling of dissent from any corner. The Secretary General Cabinet Chaudhry Muhammad Ali of the Indian Audits and Accounts Service was also made head of the Planning Committee (not to be confused with the Planning Commission) to determine what decisions could be made by the Prime Minister and his cabinet and which needed to be made by the Governor General. Things proceeded seemingly well but something was amiss. Jinnah remarked to Sindh Premier M. A. Khuhro, "The Prime Minister is average and most of his cabinet is below average." It was true that there was a huge gap in the stature of the Quaid-i-Azam and the men who constituted the new Government in Pakistan. Yet the absolute parting of the ways came with the inauguration of the State Bank of Pakistan on July 1, 1948. After that no one saw Mr. Jinnah until the Secretary General Cabinet called a physician weeks later to tell him to proceed to Ziarat. When asked who the patient was, the reply was significant, "the Quaid-i-Azam". The rest of the story is rather murky and need not be repeated here. Mr. Jinnah returned to Karachi but only to die within 3-4 hours, two of which were spent in an ambulance devoid of fuel. The Prime Minister arrived at Government House Karachi weeping bitterly only after Mr. Jinnah's soul had left his body.
As the Government of Pakistan gradually came out of mourning, the pious and ineffective Khwaja Nazimuddin was installed as the Governor General and the Prime Minister soon emerged as one of the most powerful in the history of Pakistan. As with Mr. Jinnah, there was virtually no dissent against Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan - at least - not then - except from one source. That was Ms. Fatima Jinnah, the sister of the Founder of Pakistan who lived on to tell her tales. In 1949 two pages of her book My Brother, specifically directed against the Prime Minister and Secretary General Cabinet, were censored out. Much later they were published in Q. U. Shahab's memoirs Shahabnaama by the time Liaquat Ali Khan had been assassinated, half a dozen more prime ministers changed through palace intrigues and two martial laws had been imposed. Naturally by that time Ms. Jinnah's assertions could neither harm nor benefit anyone of the worldly wise people running Pakistan and Shahab could publish the two pages. Ms. Jinnah had died by then of - mysterious causes, to say the least.
Then came the early nineties. Lady Sughra Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah asserted that Ms. Jinnah had actually been assassinated. The news got a one column heading in the Dawn. Lady Hidayatullah couldn't have chosen a worse timing for her disclosures.
Pakistan was then caught up in an unfortunate controversy at that time. It had been pointed out in the Supreme Court that while after the death of Gen Ziaul Haq, the court was just about to announce its judgment reverting Muhammad Khan Junejo as Prime Minister and indeed even his security escort had arrived, a courier came in the way of all that. The courier was a Law Minister and future Senate Chairman, the message was from the most powerful man of Pakistan (not to be confused with President Ishaq Khan) to the Chief Justice to let the will of the people prevail. It was one of those things that should not have happened but had happened yet could not be admitted by anyone under any pretext and hence tempers were running loose. During the process, the Chief Justice remarked that even God could not stop him from reaching the truth, immediately provoking a blasphemy charge against him. It was in these conditions that the good Lady Hidayatullah said what she said.
After around a decade came Ms. Jinnah's centenary in 2003 happened with one of her bodyguards in the Muslim League Zafrullah Khan Jamali in the saddle as Prime Minister. Ms. Jinnah had even condoled the death of the then prime minister's uncle Mir Jaffer Khan Jamali exactly three months before her own death. However, there were the same rituals with wreaths of flowers oh her grave and all the politically correct statements delivered.
As the centenary fervour seemed to die down, I sent a widely distributed email maintaining that, “It is high time that the nation attains a level of maturity whereby it can come to terms with certain realities and attempt to address certain unanswered questions relating to her (Miss Jinnah’s) life... The lady was ostracized, persecuted and marginalized to a point that people had even forgotten about her existence when she decided to take on Field Marshal Ayub Khan in the 1964 presidential elections. The manner in which the elections were conducted and their unfortunate aftermath are known to all”. I went on to ask, “What is the real truth? Will the teeming millions of Pakistan ever be considered worthy enough of being taken into confidence about these pranks played by a few chosen ones? And those naïve people amongst us who think that our press is free should reconsider their opinion. The real truth is simply not for consumption of the ordinary mortals in Pakistan”.
And lo and behold - a couple of days later celebrated lawyer Sharifuddin Pirzada came up with the revelation that Ms. Jinnah had actually been murdered. This was President Ayub Khan's Attorney General talking and he immediately came within the mischief of 5-6 articles of the Pakistan Penal Code for not disclosing something which was in his knowledge relating to a heinous crime. And so the matter was again hushed up.
Let us again go back in time. Mr. (later Justice) Javed Iqbal narrates in his memoirs that he was told during the late fifties or early sixties that he would make a good Law Minister of West Pakistan and advised by a friend to meet the Central Law Minister. The gentleman in question, Mr. Khursheed expresses surprise and remarks, "but you are a decent person" adding hastily "we are looking for a rogue!". The powers that be's eyes fell on Ghulam Nabi Memon who was appointed to that position. Any matter relating to Ms. Jinnah death ends up with mention of Ghulam Nabi Memon, Hon'ble Law Minister of West Pakistan and the not so honourable Commissioner of Karachi Syed Darbar Ali Shah, who was later dismissed by Yahya Khan.
Going through her apolitical activities, I find that she was chief patron of the National TB Association as it was then called for decades and took an active part in TB prevention and control. She donated 100,000 rupees in 1962 to the Sindh Madressah Board allowing it to prosper as per her brother's desire. She went about performing inaugural ceremonies of colleges and universities, with a keen focus on women's issue. The 1964 elections (actually January 1, 1965) demonstrated that had she come in power, she could have served as an indispensable bridge between East and West Pakistan and perhaps reversed the tide set in motion to the contrary almost immediately after the creation of Pakistan.
Ms. Jinnah was found dead in her bed on July 9, 1967 indicating that close to 52 years have gone by. Will someone ever tell what happened after she slept the earlier night? It is clear that those governing Pakistan had seen one Jinnah and dreaded the prospect of another ruling Pakistan. Ayub Khan would not even allow her brother's tomb to be completed and it remained a dome of mud for over 2 decades. Then as Khaled Ahmed noted in 2003 the lady "revealed too much too soon in our history". Writing in the Daily Times in 2003 , Sir Cam questioned: And who strangled Miss Jinnah? Even if not physically throttled, she was strangled by the ‘system’. Like millions of ordinary people every day.
So be it - this country didn't deserve the Jinnahs, it deserved charlatans or worse! May her soul rest in eternal peace.
Copyright: Dr Ghulam Nabi kazi
The Fatima Jinnah Mystery - writeup mine
"How fair do you want the elections to be Sir" The question came from senior civil servant G. Muenuddin then working as Chief Election Commissioner. It was posed to the all powerful President of Pakistan Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan, N.Pk., H.J., in 1964. Ayub had not yet fallen out with the powers that be nor was there any major or visible internal dissent. Nor yet had be suffered from pulmonary embolism till then. What he therefore said was the law. "As fair as practicable" came the cryptic reply. The Field Marshal had a formidable opponent. It was no less a person than the Founder of Pakistan's sister Ms. Fatima Jinnah. The orders had been issued nevertheless. Mueenuddin was a senior member of the Indian Civil Service whose name appeared third in the gradation list of ICS turned CSP officers, appearing immediately after Justice A. R. Cornelius and Justice S. A. Rehman. Ayub Khan ruled Pakistan exclusively through his civil servants. His reliance on them was indeed so great that Yahya Khan erroneously believing that the civil service was responsible for Ayub's downfall, tried to cow them down and fell on his face. Anyway to cut a long story short, the elections could and would only be that much fair as was consistent with Ayub Khan winning them. He won - although Ms. Jinnah swept Karachi, Dacca and Chittagong!
But let us go a little back in time before this uncanny conversation. It is 1947 and the Indian sub-continent is about to be divided. A fierce argument is in process between two men. One is not only the Viceroy and Governor General of India but also the cousin of the British monarch, Lord Mountbatten. The other is a polished and brilliant lawyer in the old Anglo-Saxon tradition who liked to be called plain Mr. Jinnah. Mountbatten was trying to force and intimidating Jinnah to accept him as first Governor General of Pakistan just the way Nehru had accepted him in India. Jinnah wanted to be Governor General himself and had an intense dislike and distrust of Mountbatten who mentioned, "But Mr. Jinnah, all the powers will be with the Prime Minister". Mr. Jinnah firmly replied, "In Pakistan I will be Governor General and the Prime Minister will do what I tell him to do." The argument was over. Some opine that this decision led to the inclusion of Gurdaspur in India giving it a clear route to Jammu and Kashmir, as Mountbatten tampered with the Radcliffe Award.
But let us move on. Pakistan came into being - Jinnah was revered and the governance of Pakistan proceeded as planned by him without even an inkling of dissent from any corner. The Secretary General Cabinet Chaudhry Muhammad Ali of the Indian Audits and Accounts Service was also made head of the Planning Committee (not to be confused with the Planning Commission) to determine what decisions could be made by the Prime Minister and his cabinet and which needed to be made by the Governor General. Things proceeded seemingly well but something was amiss. Jinnah remarked to Sindh Premier M. A. Khuhro, "The Prime Minister is average and most of his cabinet is below average." It was true that there was a huge gap in the stature of the Quaid-i-Azam and the men who constituted the new Government in Pakistan. Yet the absolute parting of the ways came with the inauguration of the State Bank of Pakistan on July 1, 1948. After that no one saw Mr. Jinnah until the Secretary General Cabinet called a physician weeks later to tell him to proceed to Ziarat. When asked who the patient was, the reply was significant, "the Quaid-i-Azam". The rest of the story is rather murky and need not be repeated here. Mr. Jinnah returned to Karachi but only to die within 3-4 hours, two of which were spent in an ambulance devoid of fuel. The Prime Minister arrived at Government House Karachi weeping bitterly only after Mr. Jinnah's soul had left his body.
As the Government of Pakistan gradually came out of mourning, the pious and ineffective Khwaja Nazimuddin was installed as the Governor General and the Prime Minister soon emerged as one of the most powerful in the history of Pakistan. As with Mr. Jinnah, there was virtually no dissent against Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan - at least - not then - except from one source. That was Ms. Fatima Jinnah, the sister of the Founder of Pakistan who lived on to tell her tales. In 1949 two pages of her book My Brother, specifically directed against the Prime Minister and Secretary General Cabinet, were censored out. Much later they were published in Q. U. Shahab's memoirs Shahabnaama by the time Liaquat Ali Khan had been assassinated, half a dozen more prime ministers changed through palace intrigues and two martial laws had been imposed. Naturally by that time Ms. Jinnah's assertions could neither harm nor benefit anyone of the worldly wise people running Pakistan and Shahab could publish the two pages. Ms. Jinnah had died by then of - mysterious causes, to say the least.
Then came the early nineties. Lady Sughra Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah asserted that Ms. Jinnah had actually been assassinated. The news got a one column heading in the Dawn. Lady Hidayatullah couldn't have chosen a worse timing for her disclosures.
Pakistan was then caught up in an unfortunate controversy at that time. It had been pointed out in the Supreme Court that while after the death of Gen Ziaul Haq, the court was just about to announce its judgment reverting Muhammad Khan Junejo as Prime Minister and indeed even his security escort had arrived, a courier came in the way of all that. The courier was a Law Minister and future Senate Chairman, the message was from the most powerful man of Pakistan (not to be confused with President Ishaq Khan) to the Chief Justice to let the will of the people prevail. It was one of those things that should not have happened but had happened yet could not be admitted by anyone under any pretext and hence tempers were running loose. During the process, the Chief Justice remarked that even God could not stop him from reaching the truth, immediately provoking a blasphemy charge against him. It was in these conditions that the good Lady Hidayatullah said what she said.
After around a decade came Ms. Jinnah's centenary in 2003 happened with one of her bodyguards in the Muslim League Zafrullah Khan Jamali in the saddle as Prime Minister. Ms. Jinnah had even condoled the death of the then prime minister's uncle Mir Jaffer Khan Jamali exactly three months before her own death. However, there were the same rituals with wreaths of flowers oh her grave and all the politically correct statements delivered.
As the centenary fervour seemed to die down, I sent a widely distributed email maintaining that, “It is high time that the nation attains a level of maturity whereby it can come to terms with certain realities and attempt to address certain unanswered questions relating to her (Miss Jinnah’s) life... The lady was ostracized, persecuted and marginalized to a point that people had even forgotten about her existence when she decided to take on Field Marshal Ayub Khan in the 1964 presidential elections. The manner in which the elections were conducted and their unfortunate aftermath are known to all”. I went on to ask, “What is the real truth? Will the teeming millions of Pakistan ever be considered worthy enough of being taken into confidence about these pranks played by a few chosen ones? And those naïve people amongst us who think that our press is free should reconsider their opinion. The real truth is simply not for consumption of the ordinary mortals in Pakistan”.
And lo and behold - a couple of days later celebrated lawyer Sharifuddin Pirzada came up with the revelation that Ms. Jinnah had actually been murdered. This was President Ayub Khan's Attorney General talking and he immediately came within the mischief of 5-6 articles of the Pakistan Penal Code for not disclosing something which was in his knowledge relating to a heinous crime. And so the matter was again hushed up.
Let us again go back in time. Mr. (later Justice) Javed Iqbal narrates in his memoirs that he was told during the late fifties or early sixties that he would make a good Law Minister of West Pakistan and advised by a friend to meet the Central Law Minister. The gentleman in question, Mr. Khursheed expresses surprise and remarks, "but you are a decent person" adding hastily "we are looking for a rogue!". The powers that be's eyes fell on Ghulam Nabi Memon who was appointed to that position. Any matter relating to Ms. Jinnah death ends up with mention of Ghulam Nabi Memon, Hon'ble Law Minister of West Pakistan and the not so honourable Commissioner of Karachi Syed Darbar Ali Shah, who was later dismissed by Yahya Khan.
Going through her apolitical activities, I find that she was chief patron of the National TB Association as it was then called for decades and took an active part in TB prevention and control. She donated 100,000 rupees in 1962 to the Sindh Madressah Board allowing it to prosper as per her brother's desire. She went about performing inaugural ceremonies of colleges and universities, with a keen focus on women's issue. The 1964 elections (actually January 1, 1965) demonstrated that had she come in power, she could have served as an indispensable bridge between East and West Pakistan and perhaps reversed the tide set in motion to the contrary almost immediately after the creation of Pakistan.
Ms. Jinnah was found dead in her bed on July 9, 1967 indicating that close to 52 years have gone by. Will someone ever tell what happened after she slept the earlier night? It is clear that those governing Pakistan had seen one Jinnah and dreaded the prospect of another ruling Pakistan. Ayub Khan would not even allow her brother's tomb to be completed and it remained a dome of mud for over 2 decades. Then as Khaled Ahmed noted in 2003 the lady "revealed too much too soon in our history". Writing in the Daily Times in 2003 , Sir Cam questioned: And who strangled Miss Jinnah? Even if not physically throttled, she was strangled by the ‘system’. Like millions of ordinary people every day.
So be it - this country didn't deserve the Jinnahs, it deserved charlatans or worse! May her soul rest in eternal peace.
Copyright: Dr Ghulam Nabi kazi