Miss Jinnah's death: official inquiry report was suppressed

From the Business Recorder

Karachi July 24 2003: The controversy about the cause of Madar-e-Millat Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah's death, sparked by off the cult remarks by Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada, Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, to question by the press after a seminar on the life of Miss Fatima Jinnah has evoked varied but strong reactions from different sections of the people.

While some have accused Pirzada of stirring an unsubstantiated and baseless controversy with the ulterior motive of diverting the people's attention from the present stand-off between the opposition and General Musharraf over his insistence to be the uniformed President of the country for as long as he deems necessary, others have supported the allegation that Miss Jinnah did not in fact die of natural causes.

Akbar Pirbhai, a renowned Indian lawyer from Bombay, now Mumbai, was Quaid-e-Azam's nephew, son of his elder sister Rehmat Bibi.

Sharifuddin Pirzada worked as his junior in his chambers for two years.

Upon the death of Miss Jinnah, or soon thereafter, her sister Shireenbai came to Karachi from Bombay, followed after a few days by their nephew Akbar Pirbhai.

While in Karachi, Pirbhai met with his relatives, acquaintances that included his one-time junior Sharifuddin Pirzada and also the friends of his deceased aunt.

He was naturally upset about whispers suggesting unnatural cause of death of her aunt and also the fact that her cook was absconding.

According to Pirzada, Pirbhai had sought an audience with President Field Marshal Ayub Khan and had prepared a petition for submission to him.

He asked Pirzada, who was the Foreign Minister in Ayub's cabinet, to facilitate an appointment with the President and also to accompany him to the meeting, which Pirzada did.

In the meeting with President Ayub Khan, Akbar Pirbhai, while stating that Miss Fatima Jinnah was assassinated by her domestic servant who had been absconding since her death, asked the President whether any autopsy or post mortem was conducted as is the norm.

On being informed that in view of the doctors' opinion that she died of heart failure it was not done.

To this, according to Pirzada, Pirbhai retorted that without a proper autopsy no doctors can render such opinion.

He then suggested that her body be exhumed for a post mortem, to which Ayub Khan stated that Miss Jinnah was held in high esteem by the people of Pakistan and they would be furious if her body was exhumed.

Pirbhai then suggested that let a judicial enquiry be held and all matters be left to the judicial tribunal to inquire into.

Pirbhai according to Pirzada also said that he would like to cross examine the doctors in proceedings before the tribunal.

Ayub Khan informed him that instead of a judicial probe the government was referring the matter to the West Pakistan Home Minister, Kazi Fazlullah for conducting an inquiry and that Pirbhai could meet him and give the necessary information.

Akbar Pirbhai then raised another issue with Ayub, that of the request to give Pakistan citizenship to his other aunt, Shireenbai, so that she might inherit Miss Fatima Jinnah's assets and for which an application had already been made to the Government of Pakistan.

Ayub informed Pirbhai that Shireenbai's request for citizenship had been rejected and then turned towards Pirzada and asked him whether he (President) reconsider the decision to which Pirzada says, I replied that he could if he wanted to, and Pirbhai concurred with this opinion.

Ayub then told Pirbhai that Shireenbai would be granted Pakistan citizenship so that she could inherit Miss Fatima Jinnah's property and other assets and that the Government of Pakistan would not pose any hurdles in her way.

The matter was referred, as Ayub had hinted, to a committee headed by the West Pakistan Home Minister Kazi Fazlullah.

This is confirmed by Syed Darbar Ali Shah, Commissioner of Karachi at that time, in a signed note to Pirzada, a copy of which has been provided to Business Recorder.

In an astounding disclosure, the Commissioner, who was the head of Karachi administration then, notes that 9th of July being a Sunday he was sitting in his office to catch up on the backlog of work when he received a phone call from his elder sister who informed him of Miss Jinnah's death.

His sister had received the news from Begum Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah who had heard of it from Miss Jinnah's washerman (Dhobi), who had gone to Mohatta Palace in the morning to deliver the laundry, as usual, and rang the bell several times but there was no response.

This, according to him, had never happened before because in the past somebody had always responded to the bell or Miss Jinnah herself had appeared in the balcony.

He got suspicious and hastened to Begum Hidayatullah's house to report the matter to her.

Upon this Begum Hidayatullah proceeded to Mohatta Palace without delay only to find Miss Fatima Jinnah dead.

Darbar Ali Shah then phoned the DIG, Karachi Police, Allah Nawaz Khan Tareen who was at his home in Clifton and who too was unaware of Miss Jinnah's death.

Upon Tareen's request Shah picked him up and the two went to Mohatta Palace.

By the time they arrived there a small crowd had already gathered, also there were a few newsmen and two doctors Colonel M.H. Shah (Retd) and another retired colonel who too was a doctor.

Both the doctors were supposed to be the friends of the family, as those present said.

The pressman had asked the doctors about the cause of the death and had been told that she had died of heart failure during her sleep.

After a brief stay downstairs with the people gathered there the Commissioner and the DIG went upstairs to Miss Jinnah's room.

She, according to Darbar Ali, was completely covered in white sheets except for her face which had the agony of death writ large on it.

Her hair also was in disarray and her neck veins looked abnormally rigid.

Darbar Ali Shah asked Tareen about the unusual stiffness of the neck veins and his reply was that it was quite normal as she had died sometime during the night and many hours had passed since then.

He added that from personal experience of having seen numerous corpses in the past he could say with certainty that there was nothing abnormal about it.

In any case, according to the Commissioner, the pronouncements of the two doctors, who the deceased trusted in her lifetime, were the decisive factor in accepting heart failure as the cause of her death by people on the spot. This however did not stop rumours from circulating later on in the city that she had not died of natural causes and that her death was a result of some violence.

In his written statement Syed Darbar Ali Shah states further that in spite of the pronouncements of the doctors which came in the press, many still suspected heart failure was not the cause of her death and thought that she had either been strangulated or done to death through some other violent means.

Since her cook disappeared at the time of her death, many accused him of the dastardly act.

The cook, according to the commissioner, was said to have belonged to Pindi Gheb in the Campbellpur (now Attock) district of the Rawalpindi Division.

Darbar Ali Shah Writes "I have never served in the Punjab Province, not to speak of Rawalpindi Division, and hence do not personally know about the general reputation of the area to which the cook belonged."

Some ladies, who happened to be friends of Miss Jinnah, also started whispering that they had noticed scars on her neck on closer examination.

They also alleged that they had seen marks of violence and even blood on her body.

Member of the National Assembly Hassan A. Shaikh, a close lieutenant of Miss Jinnah, and other leaders of the Council Muslim League met Darbar Ali Shah and raised queries in this regard.

In view of their allegations, Shah writes, "I thought it advisable to order a magisterial enquiry.

I therefore directed the then District Magistrate, Karachi, Khalid Mahmud, to conduct a thorough enquiry in the matter himself and furnish his report to me.

Before he could do so, the provincial government, presumably on the instructions of the central government, decided to conduct an enquiry themselves at their own level and so the matter was taken out of the hands of the local administration.

The then Home Minister, West Pakistan, Qasi Fazlullah, came over to Karachi and conducted an enquiry personally for several days.

He no doubt asked me about my version of the occurrence, but otherwise he carried out his enquiry independently of the local administration.

So I do not know what his finding in the matter was, for I never received a copy of his report. Copies of his report, if any, might be available in the offices of the provincial and central governments."


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picture and information courtesy of Mr Danali Dahraj

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Courtesy: Mr. Omain Shah

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