Persons like Mohammad Ali Jinnah are born once in a blue moon as they are a rare commodity. Isn’t it a proper occasion to pen a few anecdotes relating to him as his birthday is quite near now.
He was addressing a public meeting in the then Cunningham Park Peshawar now billed as Jinnah park in 1946. Most of his speech was in Urdu in which he used some English words too. A correspondent of Time Magazine who was present in the said meeting spotted a Pustho speaking chap clapping incessantly on every sentence which the Quaid delivered. When the meeting was over he asked that chap that as far as he knows you doesn’t know Urdu and English then how come you clapped so passionately on every sentence which the Quaid delivered to which he replied. This much however I know that Jinnah sahib never tells lies so whatever he uttering was true. This reply was sufficient to reveal how great was Jinnah sahib .
As would be evident from the perusal of following anecdotes he never played duck and drakes with national money, he was against interference in the work of bureaucracy and he respected rule of law.
Insiders know that since long whenever the PM or the President in our country preside over any cabinet meeting lavish expenditure is incurred on those occasions on tea or food arrangements and more often than not snacks are bought from 7 star hotels. In his book a military Secretary of the Quaid recalls that a cabinet meeting was to be held in Governor General House in Karachi. One day prior to it he enquired from the Quaid as what should be served in the meeting to its participants, coffee or tea, to which he counter posed this question to him. Would the participants not take their breakfast in their home before coming for the meeting and that reply set the practice of serving the participants of such meetings with plain water in jug and glasses as the fashion of mineral water bottles had not yet gained currency then.
A committee headed by the then Commissioner Karachi Hasham Raza had been appointed to allot houses to the Mohajirs coming from India after partition. A senior Muslim Leaguer Mohajir asked the Quaid to put in a word to him to allot him an house out of turn. Quaid refused his plea saying that he never liked interfering in the work of civil servants. Similarly a lady nurse who was performing medical duties with the Quaid in Ziarat Quetta once asked him to tell Secretary Health to transfer her to some where in Panjab which he declined saying that he cannot interfere in his job.
Once a near relative of the Founder of nation tried to seek appointment with him and gave his visiting card to the ADC of the Quaid on which against his name he wrote cousin of Quaid -e -Azam . The founder of the nation took umbrage at it and after cutting off the words cousin of Quaid -e -Azam with a pen of red ink told his ADC to tell him to never ever introduce himself to any body by writing the words cousin of Quaid- e- Azam on visiting card and tell him that when ever he is free from his official commitments he would grant him appointment.
The Quaid was to see a very senior Muslim leaguer in Peshawar in 1946 for which he had given him afternoon time of 4 pm, when the said Muslim Leaguer came late by fifteen minutes the Quaid refused to see him. The object of referring to these anecdotes is to pinpoint the fact that the founder of the nation was a highly disciplined man of principles. His close comrades like Nawabzada Liaqat Ali Khan and Sardar Abdul Rab Nisthar, to mention a few, were also men of impeccable financial integrity.
