JinnahThe

Quaid
While a case is still pending in the Sindh High Court, filed by the Ismaili family of Jinnah that he was an
Ismaili, court witness, Sharifuddin Pirzada claimed that he converted to Twelver Shia in 1901.On the
other hand, I.H Ispahani, his private secretary, informed that Jinnah himself told him in 1936 that he had
converted to Shia Twelver in 1898. However, he himself preferred not to openly declare his sect and
beat about the bush. The result is that a debate is still going on in Pakistan to prove whether he was an
Ismaili or a Shia or a Sunni. However, he cherished ham sandwiches and high quality liquor;
nevertheless, he made sure that the vast Muslim community remained unaware of it.
To the wrath of his close friend, he enticed hisdaughter, twenty-four year his junior, into a relationship
and after several years of a strained married life, let her die in seclusion. He himself married a Parsi but
when his own daughter wanted to marry another Parsi, he disowned her. At one point in time, he would
propagate a state structure guided by religious tenets, while at another; he would strongly oppose a
theocratic state. He would advance the two-nation theory that Hindus and Muslims were two nations
and could never live together. And then taking a diametrically opposite position, in a speech on Aug 11,
1947, he blasted the whole concept of two nations, completely oblivious of the fact that Islam was
excessively exploited during the Pakistan movement and it was almost impossible to put the genie back
into the bottle.
While Mahatma Gandhi, Mountbatten and even Ataullah Shah Bukhari could foresee the bloodshed and
a chain reaction of atrocities to be committed in the wake of Partition, Jinnah was least bothered or he
conveniently ignored it. Whilethe sub-continent was burning due to communal strife, a grand party was
being held at Governor House in Karachi where guests were being served with high quality liquor.
He read little, wrote nothing, and never went to jail. When asked as to why he never went behind the
bars whereas Mahatma Gandhi did, his reply was I am not a criminal. He would call Abul Kalam Azad, a
great statesman and a scholar of high caliber, as the show boy of Congress.
He would say that Pakistan was inevitable yet would accept theCabinet Mission Plan negating the
creation of a separate state. And while championing the cause, he completely overlooked the
consequences for those Muslims who were to be left behind in India. He did not know Urdu, would
generally wear English dress and had almost no interaction with the common man of the areas which
were to become part of Pakistan.
He was the Governor General and yet he kept the office of the President of the Muslim League and the
constituent assembly. Liaqat Ali Khan was the head of the government yet Jinnah would chair the
cabinet meetings often bitterly snubbing Liaqat in front of his cabinet ministers. Excessively snobbish
and completely cut off from grass-root politics, while immensely westernized and completely
inaccessible to the man in- the- street were some of the characteristics of the great leader.
The major players in the cabinet were unelected and unrepresentative bureaucrats like Chaudhary
Mohammad Ali, Sir Zafarullah and Ghulam Mohammad who happened to be very close to Jinnah.
Surrender of vital decision-making to those non-elected individuals laid the foundations of
bureaucracys ascendancy in national politics.
This was the type of personality, which was to become the father of the Pakistani nation.
On 15 August 1947, Mr. Jinnah took oath as Governor General of Pakistan and on 22 August, just after a
week, dissolved the elected government of Dr. Khan Sahib in the NWFP. Prior to that, Mr. Jinnah had
urged Khan Qayyum to create a breakaway faction of Congress, by any means, which would join
Muslim League (ML) so that the strength of ML in the provincial assembly could be increased and an ML
government could be formed in the province. That laid the foundations of horse-trading for all times to
come.
On 26 April 1948, the government of elected Chief Minister of Sindh, Mr. Ayub Khuhro, which enjoyed
the support of majority of the members of the provincial assembly, was also dismissed as Mr. Jinnah
ordered the Governor Mr. Hidayatullah to dispose him of.
One month after coming into power, while Maharaja Hari Singh was indecisive about his accession to
either India or Pakistan, he ordered General Gracy, the army chief to invade Kashmir. On his refusal, he
asked tribal lashkars to get into Kashmir and capture it. They did, only to face a humiliating defeat. He
also laid the foundation of intrusion into another countrys territory, which unfortunately continues to
this day, and even after six decades, Pakistan has nothing to show as a progressive nation, much to the
disappointment of the educated intelligentsia.
Typical of him, seven months into power, in March 1948, he ordered military action in Balochistan,
which culminated in the forcible annexation of the states of Balochistan. Seven months into Power and
while addressing the provincial assembly of East Pakistan in March 1948, he declared that Urdu and
Urdu alone would be the national language of Pakistan. Interestingly, he was addressing the assembly in
English. That declaration led to riots and protests in the Eastern Wing. Denying Bengalis the right to
adopt their own language, as the official language, which also happened to be the language of the
majority, laid the foundation of East Pakistans separation at a later stage.
He referred to Kashmir as Pakistans jugular vein, which led to later conflicts where three inconclusive
wars have been fought to no avail. He was for the inclusion of two large provinces namely, Punjab and
Bengal, into Pakistan; however, Mountbatten disagreed. To this, he stated that people were first of all
Bengalis and Punjabis and then Muslims. And their history, language, culture and economy were
common. Mountbatten smiled and said, Well, following your line of argument, they are first of all
Indians and then Muslims and Hindus, and this is what congress says. However, Jinnah could never
foresee or he ignored the horrifying consequences of dividing India on the basis of religion.
Hence, at times he would use religion as the lynchpin of nationhood and on other occasions, he would
refer to ethnicity andcountry forming the cornerstone of a separate nation. The Lahore resolution was
passed in 1940 whereas Partition took place in 1947.During this seven-year period Jinnah did nothing
but resort to hollow rhetoric and political sloganeering. The fallout camewhen the Boundary
Commission was preparing its recommendations. The entire Muslim League had nobody who could
appreciate the technicalities of the Commissions recommendations. The only capable person was an
Ahmadi, namely, Sir Zafarullah Khan, who faced The Commission and was finally able to get hold of what
was later to become a state declaring Sir Zafarullah a non-Muslim.
When the Partition plan was announced on June 3 1947, the first thing required to be focused on was
the demarcation of boundary between the two countries and the division of assets. Now it was
worthwhile that during the interim period (which may even extend beyond August 15, 1947) both the
states had a common Governor General who could oversee a just division. Mountbatten wanted to
remain as the Governor General and the Congress accepted the proposal but Jinnah refused. He wanted
to become the Governor General himself of the newly created state at any cost, even if the state had to
bear losses worth billions. To this, Mountbatten sent a secret telegram to London, in which he described
Jinnahs behavior as Megalomania in its worst stubborn form. It is said that since Mountbatten was
the Governor General of India, he took care of the Indian state and consequently Pakistan lost Ferozepur
head works while Gurdaspur also went to India, which then got land access to Kashmir. Had
Mountbatten been the Governor General of both the states after Partition, he might not have used his
influence in favor of India.
While Jinnah did not accept Mountbatten as the common Governor General of India and Pakistan, he
did acknowledge Field Marshal Auchinleck as the common Supreme Commander of Armed Forces both
the states. The same Auchinleck had ordered Pakistans army chief, General Gracy, not to send his
troops for invasion into Kashmir.
When Liaqat Ali Khan went to see him in Ziarat, Balochistan, while he was sick, Jinnah later told his sister
He had come to see if I was alive. Precisely so, as Liaqat knew that as long as Jinnah was alive, he could
never function as Prime Minister of Pakistan.
When on last breath, on September 11, 1948, he was motored from Ziarat to Quetta, 71 miles over
mountains. The ambulance carrying him stalled at the foul smelling area of Kemari where fish was dried
in the sun. Another ambulance was brought from Malir by Colonel Geoffrey Knowles, which came too
late. At 6:10 PM, they reached their destination.... Jinnah the Quaid
B y
Waseem Altaf