Muhammad Ali Jinnah was born in Karachi on Dec. 25, 1876. After receiving secondary school education in Karachi, he went to England for higher studies. He joined Lincoln’s Inn to study Law. Upon returning home after completing his studies, he started his career as a young barrister in Bombay. He soon joined politics and started political struggle for independence.
Jinnah helped in the 1916 Lucknow Pact between the Indian National Congress and the All-India Muslim League, the two political parties of the time. He became a key leader in the All India Home Rule League and proposed a 14-point constitutional reform plan to safeguard the political rights of Muslims. He left Congress and joined All-India Muslim League in 1920.
By 1940, Jinnah had come to believe that Indian Muslims should have their own state. In that year, he was the President of All-India Muslim League.
On March 23, 1940, All-India Muslim League passed the famous Lahore Resolution to demand a separate homeland for the Muslims of India. In a short span of just seven years, the dream of the Muslims became a reality and Pakistan came into being on Aug. 14, 1947.
The Muslims of Lucknow on the occasion of session of the Muslim League in October 1937 welcomed Jinnah and shouted “the Quaid-e-Azam” when they saw their leader appearing at the venue dressed in a Sherwani and a cap. That cap later on was to be known as Jinnah cap. The people of Pakistan in recognition of their leader’s services to the cause of Pakistan gave him the title “Father of the Nation”.
He was the first Governor-General of Pakistan. He worked to establish the newly independent country’s government and formulate its policies, and to aid millions of Muslim migrants who had emigrated from India to Pakistan after the partition. Quaid-e-Azam died at the age of 71 on Sept. 11, 1948. It was a great loss to the nation.
Numerous articles and books have been written on Quaid-e-Azam. The famous historian Stanley Wolpert writes in the biography of the Quaid titled “Jinnah of Pakistan” that “few individuals significantly alter a course of history. Fewer still modify the map of the world. Hardly anyone can be credited with creating a nation–state. Muhammad Ali Jinnah did all three.” — M. H. W.
