The Governor General of Pakistan

Quaid-e-Azam arrived at the Karachi Airport

Listening to the Address of Lord Mountbatten in the Constituent Assembly on 14 August, 1947

The Quaid-e-Azam and Fatima Jinnah, Karachi, 14 August, 1947

Quaid-e-Azam replying to the Address by Lord Mountbatten in Constituent Assembly on 14 August,1947

Quaid-e-Azam being administered the oath of office of the Governor Genral by the Chief Justice of Pakistan

Signing the register as the first Governor General of the newly created State of Pakistan

Quaid-e-Azam and Liaqat Ali Khan in the Constituent Assembly,1947

Quaid and Fatima Jinnah arriving at the Independence Day Celebrations

Presiding over a Session of the Constituent Assembly

Quaid-e-Azam at a function at the Governor General House,karachi

Inspecting a contingent of the Pakistan Navy

Guard of Honour being presented to the Quaid-e-Azam as the Governor General of Pakistan

At the Naval Base at Karachi,1947

Arriving the Civic Reception given in his honour by the Karachi Municipal Corporation in Augest,1947

Gala independence Day on 14 August,1947,in the Governor General House in Karachi

Replying to the Civic Address at the Karachi Municipal Corporation

With the Vice-Chancellor of the Punjab University,1947

Cutting his Birthday cake on 25 December,1947 in Karachi

Quaid-e-Azam and Fatima Jinnah at a diplomatic reception at Karachi

The Quaid and Fatima Jinnah at preview of a documentary film "In Our Midst" at a cinema house in Karachi(1948)

At a reception at the Sindh Chief Court at Karachi

The Quaid commissioning a Naval Ship(dilawar)

Arrives to attend a Scout Rally at Karachi

Addressing the Shahi Darbar at Sibi

With a group of Quetta Students

Watching a sports meet at Sibi in March,1948

Addressing a huge public meeting at Chittagong,1948

Quaid-e-Azam witnessing a parade of Ack Ack Regiment,Karachi, 1948

Inspecting an Anti-Aircraft Gun at Malir ,Karachi

The Last Year

Pakistan became constitutionally independent at midnight between the 14th and 15th August 1947. The Quaid assumed charge as the Governor General of Pakistan on August 15, 1947.

Soon after that Jinnah riveted himself to work. The colossal task of building Pakistan from scratch needed his immediate attention. Since the Lahore Resolution of 1940, he never rested even for a moment. But he surpassed himself after becoming the first head of the biggest Muslim State. From the day he arrived in Karachi on August 7, till he breathed his last, is a tale of self abnegation, exemplary devotion to duty and intense activity.

  Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah with Liaquat Ali Khan

Even at the hour of triumph, Jinnah was sick and in pain. He had little or no appetite; he had lost his gift of being able to sleep at will and he passed many sleepless nights; also, his cough increased and with it his temperature. The harrowing tales of the sufferings of the refugees affected him deeply.

Of the numerous disputes with India and domestic worries,evidently the unsolved problem of Kashmir, his inability to complete the Constitution of the new state of Pakistan, and the plight of the millions of refugees who had arrived in their new homeland utterly destitute affected him the most.

The scale of the refugee problem and the depth of the tragedy were indeed heart rendering. For Pakistan the problem of coping with the refugees was proportionately far more serious than it was for India. Her territory and resources were much smaller and her administration was still in its infancy.

It was not only the plight of the Muslim refugees who had arrived from India that grieved the Quaid-i-Azam deeply. The sad condition of the Hindus in Pakistan hurt him no less.

Apart from Kashmir, there were two Princely states Junagarh and Hyderabad that formed the subject of disputes between India and Pakistan. All the states in the subcontinent except these three had acceded either to India or Pakistan by 14th August 1947. It so happened that all these three were ruled by princes whose own religion was different from that of the majority of their subjects.

The Governor General

Quaid-i-Azam and Fatima Jinnah drove on the morning of August 14th, from the government house to the Legislative Assembly hall along a carefully guarded route, lined with soldiers as well as police alerted to watch for possible assassins, since reports of a Sikh plan to assassinate Jinnah, had reached Mountbatten and Jinnah several days earlier. But only shouts of “Pakistan Zindabad” and “Quaid-i-Azam Zindabad” were hurled at his carriage. The Mountbattens followed in the crowded semicircular chamber of Pakistan’s parliament, which had been Sind’s Legislative Assembly.

Lord Mountbatten graciously felicitated Jinnah and read the message from his cousin, King George, welcoming Pakistan into the Commonwealth. Jinnah replied:

“Your Excellency, I thank His Majesty on behalf of the Pakistan Constituent Assembly and myself. I once more thank you and Lady Mountbatten for your kindness and good wishes. Yes, we are parting as friends…and I assure you that we shall not be wanting in friendly spirit with our neighbors and with all nations of the world.”

A witness reported:

“If Jinnah’s personality is cold and remote, it also has a magnetic quality -- the sense of leadership is almost overpowering…here indeed is Pakistan’s King Emperor, Archbishop of Canterbury, Speaker and Prime Minister concentrated into one formidable Quaid-i-Azam.”