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Cam Diary: Jinnah’s Karachi Sir Cam

Fifty odd years down the line, those “grim issues” are still begging to be tackled earnestly. As Ardeshir Cowasjee asked in a recent column, “Is it possible for his [Jinnah’s] soul to rest in peace”

Karachi is first and foremost Jinnah’s town. From his birth in the city in 1876 to his death there in 1948, Jinnah had an umbilical attachment with the place. He expressed his “great love and regard for this beautiful town” and his “old associations with it” and visualise[d] a great future for Karachi” in a speech on August 25, 1947. He wound up the speech by saying, “Let us all strive together to make this beautiful town a great metropolis, a centre of trade, industry and commerce, and a seat of learning and culture”. Wish! Much has happened since, however, to transform Karachi it into the “city of death”.

That notwithstanding, there is much of interest for the tourist in the city still, especially one seeking the Jinnah connection or the historic perspective: Quaid-e-Azam House Museum, Jinnah’s mausoleum, and a whole range of places from the elegant Mohatta Palace, the Victorian buildings of the Raj right down to the Clifton Fortress (otherwise known as Bhutto’s home).

MAH Ispahani: Businessman
Being Jinnah’s town, Karachi is also home to people who still remember meeting or seeing the Father of Pakistan. I was in town (early last year) to meet up with the offspring of two distinguished men who were close to Jinnah: MAH Ispahani and Mumtaz Hasan.

Mirza Abol Hassan Ispahani (1902-1981) attracted me both as a Cambridge man (St John’s College, 1922), as well as a close associate of Jinnah’s. It is Ispahani who in his book “Quaid-i-Azam Jinnah as I knew him”-one of the few memoirs on Jinnah-gives the only account of Jinnah’s visit to Cambridge in late 1920. Hailing from one of the subcontinent’s top business families, Ispahani entered politics and effectively bankrolled Jinnah’s Muslim League. After Partition, he became Pakistan’s first Ambassador to the USA (1947-52) and the second Pakistani High Commissioner in London (1952-54). He leaves behind two sons, “Isky”-whom I met in Karachi-and Zia, and a daughter, Iran.

Mumtaz Hasan: Man of Letters
I came across Mumtaz Hasan ((1907-1974)) through his book “The Adventures of Hir & Ranjha” (being a translation from Punjabi by CF Usborne; edited with introduction and notes by MH, 1966). His granddaughter, Shazia, a talented writer, aroused further interest in him and his grandson Shahzad provided further detailed biographic information.

Mumtaz Hasan was Under Secretary, Government of India, 1930; PS, Finance Member, Viceroy’s Executive Council, 1939-42; PS, Liaquat Ali Khan and Secretary Finance, 1952-59. Shazia Hasan e-mailed me her superbly written 1993 article on her grandfather, “A cherished heirloom”. It’s a wonderful tale of how Mumtaz Hasan came to acquire Jinnah’s letter opener.

“It was in December of 1946 that Mumtaz Hasan, my grand-father accompanied the Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Liaquat Ali Khan and K.H. Khursheed to England. K.H. Khursheed was Mr Jinnah’s secretary and Mumtaz Hasan was Liaquat Ali’s private secretary during that time. Mr Jinnah spotted Mumtaz Hasan opening some envelopes with his index finger... Mr Jinnah being the meticulous and organised man that he was, went to his seat and came back with a tiny silver sword, about the size of a fountain pen, which could be used as a paper cutter... “Perhaps this will do the job better, Mumtaz,” he said crisply to Mumtaz Hasan. “Kindly return it to me after you have used it”.” Jinnah eventually allowed Mumtaz Hasan to keep it.

Karachi Eidgah
It’s worrying how people’s recollections about Partition or personalities such as Jinnah have been neglected. They are a great source of historical and biographical material. Even my host in Karachi, Shafiq Sr., a retired businessman, provided me with a firsthand account of Jinnah. As we drove past the Eidgah Market, he told me about the first Eid held in Karachi soon after Partition. It was the Bakarah Eid (Eid-ul-Adha) and the gathering was near the site of the Eidgah Market. Jinnah was unusually late for prayers and people made way for the Great Leader so he could move to the front. Being the man he was, Jinnah stood his ground at the back, in the row behind Shafiq Sr., and completed his prayers there.

In his Eid-ul-Adha message of October 24, 1947, Jinnah said, “So my message to you all is of hope, courage and confidence. Let us mobilise all our resources in a systematic and organised way and tackle the grave issues that confront us with grim determination and discipline worthy of a great nation”. Fifty odd years down the line, those “grim issues” are still begging to be tackled earnestly. As Ardeshir Cowasjee asked in a recent column, “Is it possible for his [Jinnah’s] soul to rest in peace?”

—Sir Cam Cambridge, England

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