Who killed Fatima Jinnah?

According to Nawa-e-Waqt July 22, 2003, Sharifuddin Pirzada, former attorney general of Pakistan and 8216;8216;honourary8217;8217; secretary to the Quaid-e-Azam from 1941 to 1944, revealed outside a conference room in Islamabad that Fatima Jinnah had not died a natural death in 1967 but was murdered by a servant of hers.

Pirzada did not speak about the incident in the conference 8216;8216;for fear of spoiling the atmosphere8217;8217; but added that more revelations would be made by him on August 14 about who hushed up the murder and then asked the Karachi police to bury the case.

The revelation has not failed to shock the entire nation busy observing a year dedicated to the memory of Fatima Jinnah, the Quaid-e-Azam8217;s most revered sister. She led the opposition to General Ayub Khan8217;s military regime and figured as his most powerful electoral opponent in elections that were widely believed to have been rigged.

Fatima returned late at night from a wedding. She locked up the house and threw the keys in her kitchen, as was her habit, and went to sleep. In the morning, when she could not be awakened, her neighbour Begum Hidayatullah was called. The door was opened in the presence of the commissioner of Karachi and the inspector general IG of police, and Fatima was found to have been murdered. Her bed was covered with blood and her neck was scarred.

The police later declared that the death had been caused by cardiac arrest. Fatima8217;s lawyer nephew Akbar Pirbhai flew over from Bombay to investigate the real cause of her death, but was confronted with an official smokescreen. Pirzada thinks she was killed by a servant but that the cover-up was later managed by the Ayub government.

Pirzada had appeared in a case that opened at the Sindh High Court in 1970 contesting Fatima Jinnah8217;s claim that the Quaid was a Shia. Fatima had entered an affidavit in 1948 at the high court saying that she and her brother were Shia.

Had Fatima been alive she would have been offended with Pirzada. He referred to documents that confirmed the secular Muslim faith of the Quaid.

It appears that Matloobul Hassan Syed and Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada were for some time simultaneously secretaries to the Quaid, one 8216;8216;honourary8217;8217; and the other 8216;8216;private8217;8217;.

When Pirzada supported General Ayub Khan and declared his connection with Jinnah, Fatima issued a statement contradicting he was ever his secretary. Pirzada submitted a press clipping at the court which said 8216;8216;Mr Pirzada, the husband of a Bohra lady, had become secretary to the Quaid8217;8217;.

According to Khabrain July 22, 2003, Saira Hashmi8217;s book published some years ago had revealed Fatima went to attend the wedding of the daughter of Mir Laiq Ali on July 8, 1967, and returned after a short stay. She locked up the house and took her usual glass of milk. In the morning Lady Hidayatullah was called, got the house opened and discovered Fatima dead.

One window was open, which was unusual, and the glass of milk was not there. Fatima8217;s cook had been fired three days earlier and a new cook had been hired. The new cook disappeared and was not to be found after the incident.

After she was given two separate namaz janaza, Fatima was not allowed to be buried near the Quaid by the Karachi administration. It wanted her to be buried in Karachi8217;s Amir cemetery, but under public pressure, the commissioner of Karachi allowed a piece of land 120 feet away from the Quaid8217;s mausoleum for her grave.

Ahmad Saeed Kirmani, who was Ayub Khan8217;s information minister, said he had heard rumours that Ayub had got Fatima killed but when he asked Ayub, he said he Ayub would be mad to do a thing like that.

Diplomat and a friend of the Jinnah family Qutbuddin Aziz told Jang July 23, 2003 that his mother had given ghusl to Fatima and had noticed no wounds or spots of blood. He said Fatima had died a natural death. Justice retd Javed Iqbal told Nawa-e-Waqt that Pirzada had kept quiet for 36 years and for some strange reason had now chosen to speak to attract attention.

Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan told daily Pakistan that he knew Fatima Jinnah had been murdered but the IG had covered it up. Jang July 24, 2003 quoted one Jawad Beg from Karachi saying his mother, Raheel Sherwani, was one of the ladies who gave the last ghusl to Fatima Jinnah and had found no blood or scars on her body.

Nawabzada Nasrullah remarked that former foreign secretary Shahryar Khan, whose late mother was a friend of the Jinnah family, would know the truth about Fatima8217;s death. Nawabzada Nasrullah is definite Fatima was killed. He is also convinced Suhrawardy too was murdered.

The mystery has developed because Fatima8217;s radio address after the death of the Quaid was switched off, meaning that all was not well between her and Liaquat. Then she had a tough confrontation with General Ayub, whose son Gohar Ayub took out a violent procession against her in 1964 during elections, when Karachi was expected to fall to her. It is psychologically damaging to Pakistan to learn all these details during a year dedicated to Fatima Jinnah8217;s memory.

Daily Times