A tribute to Quaid-i-Azam

Of all the great men that I have known in my life Maulana Hasrat Mohani, Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, H.H. Aga Khan III, Allama Mohammad Iqbal, Quaid-i-Millat Liaquat Ali Khan, Nawab Hamidullah Khan of Bhopal, Raja Amir Ahmed Khan, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Sir Robert Menzies, Sir Walter Nash, the greatest was Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. It was my good fortune to have met him several times in the pre-Independence and post-Independence periods.

It was in August 1931 that I called on this uncrowned king of the All-India Muslim League in Lucknow. He  had come from England to appear in a Taluqdari case pending in the 0udh Chief Court. The bench which heard this case comprised Sir Wazir Hasan, Chief Judge and my father, Justice Syed Mohammad Raza. His opponent was Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru whose voice resounded in the court. I was a student then but was lucky to get admission to hear the case. The Quaid was the cynosure of all eyes. He was a man of striking appearance, immaculately dressed with a monocle in one of his eyes. His voice was mellow and smooth. He spoke like an Englishman. His arguments were so persuasive that he won his case. He was staying with the Raja Sahib of Mahmoodabad, and I called on him in the evening on behalf of the Lucknow University Union. The office bearers of the Union earnestly requested him to address the students of the Lucknow University on his impressions of the First Round Table Conference which he had attended in London. He was gracious enough to accede to our request. He addressed us on 11 August 1931. The main hall was full to capacity. His performance was memorable. He reiterated his eforts to unite the Hindus and the Muslims of India which earned him the praise of the President of the Indian National Congress, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, who said that ‘Jinnah was the best ambassador of Hindu—Muslim Unity’. He concluded his speech by raising his forefinger and revolving it with the words, ‘We went round and round in London. We are still going round and round without reaching the straight path that would lead us to freedom’.

I met him next in 0xford in 1933 when he was gracious enough to address the 0xford Majlis, a debating society comprising of Indian and English students, and the 0xford Muslim Society comprising of students from various Muslim countries. He was gracious enough to invite the office bearers of these two societies to Randolph Hotel where he was staying with Miss Jinnah. We, the Muslim students studying in 0xford, were extremely perturbed, at the prospect of the Quaid-i-Azam settling down in England. We asked him whether he had decided to settle down permanently in London.

He replied that for the present he had decided to stay in England as his presence was needed to explain the case of Indian Muslims to the members of the British Parliament which would decide the fate of India, to prominent public personalities and to the newspapers who influence public opinion. We took the liberty of asking him how long he contemplated living in England. He replied, ‘time alone will determine it’. He was back in India in 1934 and by October 1935 he was moving to and fro reorganizing the Muslim League. I met the Quaid for the third time in Simla in the summer of 1938. My name had been sent by the government of Bombay to the government of India for consideration as a member of the Indian Political Service. I stayed at the same hotel where the Quaid used to stay during the session of the Legislative Assembly. I spotted him out at breakfast in a corner.

I walked up to him to pay my respects and reminded him of my meeting with him in Oxford. He asked what had brought me to Simla. I told him that I would be interviewed for appointment to the Indian Political Service. He asked me where I was posted and I told him that I was then Assistant Collector, Nasik. The Quaid told me that it was better if I was posted to an Indian State, otherwise I would be better advised to continue in my present assignment.

I was transferred to Sindh in January 1939 and was posted as Assistant Collector, Karachi. Later on as Collector and District Magistrate, Karachi, Chief Secretary of Sindh and Administrator of the federal capital of Pakistan. Karachi remained the federal capital for ten years till Field Marshal Ayub Khan transferred the capital to Rawalpindi and later on to Islamabad.

In December 1913, the Quaid expressed his sentiments about the city of Karachi in the following words: ‘You do not know what pleasure it gives me to stand on this platform in the city of Karachi where I was born and where I had personal friends with whom I played in my boyhood. I am delighted to see so many of my Sindhi friends who are here.’

It was my good fortune to meet the Quaid whenever he stayed in Karachi with Sir Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah, Sir Abdoola Haroon and Mr Justice Hatim Tayabji, Chief Judge of the Sindh Chief Court. His after dinner conversations were captivating. One could appreciate why Mrs Sarojini Naidu wrote sonnets about him and why Ruttie, the seventeen year old daughter of a Parsi millionaire, Sir Dinshaw Petit, fell head over heels in love with him and married him against the wishes of her parents!

On the morning of 29 November 1946 I called on him in my capacity as the Secretary of Sir Francis Mudie, the governor of Sindh. He was staying with Mir Bundeh Ali Talpur at that time who was Prime Minister of the Sindh Government. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Mr Attlee had called a meeting of the more prominent Indian leaders to discuss the future of India. On the eve of the meeting Reuters reported that on a query whether Pakistan would be discussed in the Conference he had replied that Pakistan had not been included in the agenda. When the Quaid read this statement he declared that he would not attend the Conference.

The Viceroy, Lord Wavell, who had informed the Prime Minister that Mr Jinnah would attend the Conference, got extremely upset and sent a telegram to Sir Francis Mudie asking him to persuade Mr Jinnah to attend the Conference and raise the question of Pakistan. I took the Viceroy’s message to the Quaid. The Quaid read the message and stated ‘I do not see any reason to reconsider my decision’. I extended my role as a messenger and submitted ‘Sir, if you do not attend the Prime Minister’s Conference it will be like Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark’. However, Mr Jinnah was adamant and said that he would not attend the Conference until Mr Attlee was willing to discuss Pakistan. When I submitted that the Viceroy had extended his assurance to widen the scope of the Conference, he retorted, ‘The Viceroy has no business to give his own assurance, when Reuters had quoted the statement of the Prime Minister. It is Mr Attlee alone who can clarify the issue’. I conveyed the gist of our conversation to Sir Francis Mudie who rang up Lord Wavell. After some hours came the Prime Minister’s personal message to the Quaid in which he stated that the Reuters version was not correct and that Mr Jinnah could discuss his scheme for Pakistan at the Conference. When I took the message to the Quaid he agreed to attend the Prime Minister’s Conference.

I now quote from Wavell’s The Viceroy’s Journal edited by Penderel Moon and first published in 1973: ‘November 30, 1945. Left Delhi at 9 am. Omens rather more favourable. Liaquat came obviously dressed for Europe, Jinnah has had a telegram from Attlee which should satisfy him, though it will have the opposite efect on Nehru… Got to Karachi at 12.30 pm.’

Lord Wavell was a distinguished straightforward soldier who was no match for the English policymakers for India. Prime Minister Attlee removed him summarily from India and appointed Lord Mountbatten to succeed him.

Lord Wavell had tried his utmost to resolve the Indian problem. He was the first Viceroy to recognize the strength of the Muslim League. It was he who had decided on the formula of parity between the Congress and the Muslim League representatives in his interior Government. He once wrote that he put the composition of Mr Gandhi’s character as, ‘70 per cent astute politician, 15 per cent saint and 15 per cent charlatan’. I now quote from his diary of 6 December 1944:’I had an hours’ talk with Jinnah. He showed his attractive side and was friendly and sensible. Willing to come to any provisional Government under the present Constitution, although he said that he could convince me that Pakistan was necessary and desirable. He is certainly intelligent.’

The month of August 1947 brings to my mind the happiest memories of my life; the morning of 7 August when the Quaid-i-Azam arrived in Karachi, along with his distinguished sister, Miss Fatima Jinnah, from the Palam Airport, Delhi. The unbounded joy of thousands of people who gathered at the Mauripur Airport to greet the emancipator of the Muslims of the subcontinent, his address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on 11 August when he was elected President of the Constituent Assembly; his speech at the ceremony of the transfer of power on 14 August in the Constituent Assembly in reply to the speech of Lord Mountbatten; his assumption of office as Governor-General of Pakistan on the august day of Jumatul-Wida on 15 August. All these memorable events are stored in my memory as a treasure.

The Quaid-i-Azam had a very clear grasp of administrative problems. Although he was a hard taskmaster yet he appreciated the difficulties which were faced by the officials. Talking to him was like talking to a giant, as Beverley Nichols wrote when he interviewed him for his book Verdict on India.

The saddest moment in my life was 11 September 1948, when the Quaid breathed his last at 10:25 p.m. in his bed at the Governor-General’s House. The funeral procession the next day from the Governor-General’s House to the Quaid’s grave a distance of several miles was the most solemn, the most awe-inspiring spectacle I have ever witnessed. There was a sea of humanity on the streets, atop the balconies and roofs of houses. The Namaz-e-Janaza was led by Allama Shabbir Ahmed Usmani, a member of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. He said that Mohammad Ali Jinnah was the greatest Muslim born in India after the demise of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir. Behind Maulana Shabbir Ahmed Usmani stood, row upon row of Muslims, Christians, Parsis and Jews. The most poignant scene at his grave was the arrival of the Quaid’s only daughter Dina (Mrs Wadia) who had rushed by plane from Bombay. She broke down, sobbing like a child and was comforted by Miss Jinnah and Lady Hidayatullah.

His resting place reflects the towering personality of the Quaid. It is situated in the heart of the city which was dear to him, where he spent the early years of his youth and the last glorious thirteen months of his life.

Quaid-ik-Azam Zindabad! Pakistan Paindabad!

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