Rutten Bai Petit married Jinnah in 1918. Born a Parsi, on her 18th birthday and left her fathers' mansion with two pets only to marry Jinnah. Exactly eleven years later she died of abdominal cancer. Jinnah never married again and died a lonely man. Known as the nightingale of Bombay, Ruttie died on her 29th birthday on 20 February, 1929.
Miss Dina Jinnah - beloved daughter of Mr Jinnah.
Born on 15 August, 1919, she turned 91 in August, 2010.
Jawaharlal and Kamala Nehru on their wedding
Subhas Chandra Bose with Mr. Jinnah
An ICS officer from Bengal, S. C. Bose (1897-1945) resigned from service and was twice elected president of the Congress but had to quit due to ideological differences with Gandhi and Nehru. He later became President of the Indian National Army during World War II. He travelled to Germany but disillusioned with Hitler, he moved to Japan and fought for the independence of India from British rule. Here he is seen in a meeting with Mr. Jinnah. Bose, commonly known as Netaji in India, is believed to have died in an air crash on 18 August, 1945, over Taiwan but his death is shrouded in mystery. He may have died as a Russian PoW in Siberia.
Mountbatten negotiating with the Founder. Due to the text below this photograph, the book "Freedom At Midnight" is technically 'banned' in Pakistan ever since its publication more than 30 years ago. They titled the picture "Pakistans' improbable prophet."
The Founding Fathers attend the Round Table Conference, 1930. Mr Jinnah is second from right in the front row and Sir Zafrullah Khan is second from the left. The Ali brothers are also there, while Begum Shahnawaz sits next to Sir Zafarullah Khan.
The 6/3 Plan - Nehru, Mountbatten and Jinnah. On 3 June, 1947, all the Indian leaders got together and put their seal on the Partition Plan. Seated by the map on the wall is Lord Ismay, Mountbattens' Chief of Staff who probably tampered with the Radcliffe Award and gave Gurdaspur to India to keep the two new countries in a perpetual state of war over Kashmir till eternity!
For 3 days only Mountbatten, Ismay and Abel (Private Secretary to Viceroy) had access to the Radcliffe Award before it was announced amidst bloodshed on 15 August, 1947. Both Muslim members of the Punjab Boundary Commission, Justice Din Mohammed (later Governor of Sindh) and Justice Munir (later Chief Justice of Pakistan), denied that this was the award they had agreed to. When Sir Cyril Radcliffe was sent his cheque of 2,000 pounds as the fee for services rendered, he simply tore it up. Need more be said!.
A map of British Indian states
The map of Pakistan proposed by Chaudhry Rehmat Ali
What Mr. Jinnah actually got. He called it a 'moth eaten' Pakistan,
but agreed to it
Karachi welcomes Mr. Jinnah in 1943. A plane monitors the situation on McLeod Road, Karachi
Mr Jinnah deliberating whether or not to pluck a rose. He had a dream - we all combined to mess it up
Mr Jinnah with a black Doberman and West Highland Terrier in Bombay during the forties
Mr Jinnahs' first and last birthday in Pakistan - 25 December, 1947. Reading about the felicitations on his birthday in the 'Dawn.' The headline says '71 today' The main headline is a statement given by Sindh Prime Minister Khuhro and reads 'Khuhro doesn't want Hindus to leave Sind.'
Mohamed Ali Jinnah on the cover of Time Magazine in 1946
Jinnah and Liaquat - Uneasy relations?
The Founder takes the salute, 14 August, 1947. His ADCs include Gul Hassan Khan later the last C-in-C of the Pakistan Army and Syed M. Ahsan C-in-C of the Pakistan Navy and Governor of East Pakistan
Prince Karim Aga Khan disembarking from a PIA flight during the fifties
Two Sardars - Sherbaz Mazari with Akber Bugti, 1954
WHERE THE ROT STARTED:Justice Munir deals a death blow to Pakistan. When Governor General Ghulam Muhammed dismissed the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan in 1954, the Sindh Chief Court declared his action ultra vires of the constitution. However under a lure of Deputy governor General ship offered to Justice Munir he validated the order under the Doctrine of Necessity and dealt a death blow to the judiciary. Subsequently sodomy cases were filed against the honourable judges of the Sindh Chief Court, who ruled against the Governor General
Comrades in Arms - Four Future Air Force Chiefs in the Royal Air Force. Seen in the picture are Air Chief Marshal Mehra Indian CAS from 1973 to 1976, Air Marshal Asghar Khan, Air Marshal Nur Khan and Air Marshal Zafar Chaudhry. While Asghar Khan opted for politics after retirement and never cared for power, Nur Khan was Deputy CMLA, Minister for all the Social Sectors and Governor of West Pakistan. Like Asghar Khan and Nur Khan, Zafar Chaudhry also headed the PIA before heading the PAF
Three trusted comrades of Ayub Khan. Air Marshal Nur Khan, Gen Musa and Vice Admiral A R Khan headed the three services during most of Ayubs' rule.
A young Air Marshal Nur Khan
Gen Ayub Khan - Prime Minister for 13 hours. Gen Ayub Khan was appointed Chief Martial Law Administrator on 7 October, 1958. 20 days later President Iskander Mirza appointed him as Prime Minister and he is seen presiding over a Cabinet meeting. 13 hours after his appointment, Mirza was deposed and Ayub Khan became the second President of the country. To his left civilian Deputy CMLA Mr Aziz Ahmed fixes his knot while Generals Azam, Burki and Sheikh, Manzur Qadir and 29-year old Z A Bhutto look on.
Ayub Khan signing the Tashkent Agreement in 1966. Commerce Minister Ghulam Faruque, Foreign Minister Z A Bhutto and Foreign Secretary Aziz Ahmed look on. Prime Minister Shastri died the same night of a heart attack. A member of Pakistan entourage woke up the Foreign Minister and told him on the telephone, 'The bastard is dead'. Still in his sleep Bhutto asked 'Which one?'
Ayub Khans' dejection may be seen more in his slumped posture, because his dark glasses hide much of what he may have been feeling. ZAB's carefully orchestrated aloofness, his sullen detachment from the "peace-making" charade, and his pensive 'head-down' posture, were meticulously executed by him with his eye on the launch of his leadership role in the near future.
Third President of Pakistan 1969-1971. Deposed and placed under house arrest
President Yahya Khan arrives in Moenjodaro Airport in January 1971. Mr Bhutto received him
Remembering Zaibunissa Hamidullah 1921-2000
Zaibunnissa Hamidullah was a pioneer amongst women journalists of South Asia. A column writer for English newspapers, including Dawn, Zaibunnissa launched Pakistans' first womans' weekly in English, The Mirror. Even though a socialite magazine, it often created ripples by its strong political editorials critical of the policies and actions of the rulers of the day in a language and style that at times earned her the wrath of the wielders of power. The power of her pen rattled Ayub Khan when she lashed out at him for elevating himself to the rank of Field Marshal, and in November 1957, his predecessor Iskander Mirza, shut the paper down for six months when Mirror flayed him for dismissing the Suhrawardy ministry. The paper was read as much for its social content as for the biting sarcasm and wit that characterized the writings of its editor. The magazine closed down in 1972 after twenty-one years of struggle against authoritarian trends in our politics and bigotry and fanaticism in society. The sting in her writings earned her quite a few enemies, but even her detractors admired her for the courage of conviction and the strength of character she displayed throughout her professional and personal life.
Sir Abdullah Haroon with his daughter Doulat Haroon
Friends turned Foes - Sherbaz Mazari with Z A Bhutto in 1959
Z A Bhutto with Indira Gandhi in the lush lawns of Simla 1972 negotiations
Zeba and Waheed Murad. The most popular couple of Pakistans' film history seen here in the movie 'Armaan' in 1966
BRISTOL HOTEL – KARACHI (1910-1994)
For those who may remember the Bristol Hotel Karchi was constructed by a Welshman in 1910 near the Cantonment Railway Station-Karachi, parallel to the rail tracks between Karachi Cantt and Karachi City Railway Station. It is in close proximity to the current location of the British Council. Initially a Tavern & Bistro for the affluent ones..mostly the high echelons and army officials under the British Raj of early 1900s. The hotel was also mostly the venue of the most talked about New Year parties, May Queen Ball and wedding parties and became the most popular place of Kolachi or Kurracchee then which continued till the late fifties when the Welshmen's son Grout, left for UK selling it to a Pakistani namely Mr Rizvi, an income tax officer in 1960. At that time, Karachi had hardly a few hotels, which were worth a stay; Metropole, Palace, Beach Luxury, Grand, Excelsior, Taj…with Intercontinental (now PC) commencing its operations in May 1961. Mr. Rizvi maintained the grandeur of BRISTOL and it's BAR and particularly it's cuisine, which was probably the best in Karachi attracting people from far and wide. The New Year Parties and May Queen Ball continued with the same fervor and glamour. During the sixites the price tag of NYP entry for a couple was Rs.300 - a small fortune in those days. Bristol continued to attract affluent Karachi-ites for it's cuisine, large rooms, lush green lawns with Saturday Night Discos and Night Club with groups from Thailand, Germany and France were in attendance later adopted by the Minwallas of Metropole for their ever popular SAMAR night club and dine out of the seventies. The BRISTOL Hotel breathed it's last when it was attacked by some dacoits and Mr. Rizvi suffering injuries in 1994 which re-occurred and within six months. Mr Rizvi was virtually forced to call it quits. The building of the hotel, however, remains as a home now. It is said that the American movie star Donna Reed stayed at Bristol sometime in 1961 during her overnight visit to Karachi enroute to Cairo on the arrangement by PAN AMERICAN airlines which used to house it's crew at Malir's GRAND Hotel of Minwallas, near Karachi Stargate Airport of 1935
