Quaid-e-Azam: A Man of Character

Quaid-e-Azam as a Role Model

By Mian Muhammad Javed

Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah the most revered leader of the Muslims of the Subcontinent was a man having inter alia a strong moral character unmatched by any other contemporary leader of those days. He is quoted as an example of impeccable integrity on which he never compromised. He is a role model for those who believe that in a Muslim nation personal character of leadership is as important as other necessary inherent qualities of leadership which get radiated to inspire people at large. This is in variation from the secular world concept that leadership may have personal weaknesses but should excel in political or military acumen merely. It is rather strange and beyond understanding that most of the subsequent political leadership in Pakistan instead of looking at and emulating the most successful and adored personality of Mohammad Ali Jinnah and his traits never tire of eulogizing the services and examples of foreign leaders, many of whom considered personal conduct not a matter of public scrutiny and took pride in their adventures which were frequently based on unaccepted social norms. An ideological state having been created it would be only right that politicians clamoring to play a leadership role in such a state should follow a proper role model of which the shining example is that of trend setter Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan who was an embodiment of qualities of head and heart. In the context of prevailing political situation in Pakistan where there are serious problems of internal security and country is facing foreign pressures it is all the more important that inspiration should be drawn from examples set by the Quaid in dealing with internal dissidents and outsiders.

He took firm stand on principles, remained adamant in face of unruly opponents and ported a strong sense of self-respect. Even with colonial masters of the day he would neither put up with improper behavior nor would tolerate a slight. It would be opportune to recall some of the incidents to elaborate on his conduct. One incident dates back to the period in his life when he started legal practice as a young lawyer. He always pleaded cases with solid arguments without involving an iota of imploration. In the course of hearing in a court of law the English magistrate due to some reason or other reminded Jinnah that he was in the court of a 1st class magistrate. Prompt came the reply by Jinnah that the advocate in him was of no lesser class. Jinnah carried his sense of self- respect every where in dealing with Indian leaders of the day including those belonging to Indian Congress. He never allowed himself to be brow beaten. Jinnah was endowed with an impressive personality by nature, and on top of it he would dress himself immaculately and maintain a posture and facial expression which commanded respect from all who were in company. It is narrated that on visit to London for political parleys he stayed in hotel. In the morning he descended from his hotel suite into the breakfast hall, using stairs. When the people present in the restaurant noticed him they all rose involuntary and stood up as a gesture of respect to him. Another interesting story about Quaid also relates to his appearance in a court of law as pleader of a client. While making arguments, monocle which Jinnah was using for reading from his notes slipped from his eye and dropped on the floor. The magistrate mischievously grinned and felt delighted, anticipating that Jinnah would have to bend in his court to pick up the monocle. He was disappointed when Jinnah put his hand in his pocket, brought out another monocle and applied it to his eye while continuing the arguments.

What Mohammad Ali Jinnah was not?

Mowahid Hussain Shah

A Muslim visitor returning from India feels instinctively a sense of gratitude to Jinnah for founding Pakistan, which, with all its warts and imperfections, is a place free from the spectre of Muslims at the receiving end of communal fury.

This is not to denigrate India, a country difficult to match in the range of its cultural diversity. But no honest Indian would contend that India is a safe haven for Muslims. But no lofty claims are made here for a secular order. Yet, some Pakistanis would still like to reassess the utility of the creation of Pakistan and the wisdom behind the founding. The debate would be conclusively answered by asking the single question: Are the Muslims of India better off than the Muslims of Pakistan?

By some accounts, India has more Muslims than Pakistan. But that fact, apart from tokenism, is not reflected at the helm of affairs. Sikhs, for all the agitation, were (and still are) far better represented than Muslims despite their significantly smaller size. Secularism is intellectually attractive but, in effect, fraudulent. The obvious needs to be restated. But for Pakistan, there would not have been too many generals, business moguls, sport superstars and bureaucrats of the Islamic faith. Having said that, it does not necessarily follow that the experiment of a Muslim homeland has been an unqualified success.

The picture on the wall

By Mahreen Khan

It is the faded, framed print on the wall, sometimes hanging slightly lopsided, the paper mottled by a combination of humidity and apathy. Flanked by newer, glossier, airbrushed portraits of less worthy incumbents, most passersby scarcely notice the iconic image of a leader who altered the course of world history and put Pakistan on the map. Quaid- i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, has been confined within the plastic portrait that adorns every government institution, his life seldom examined, its wisdom untapped and the principles of his politics unapplied.

Perhaps this is due to the depersonalised, unimaginative way in which youngsters are taught the history of this nation. My own knowledge of Quaid-i-Azam centred on the respectful epithet “father of the nation”— a routine fact of general knowledge, devoid of any personal resonance or understanding until Stanley Wolpert’s Jinnah of Pakistan captured my attention. Ironically, it took an American professor to first pen such an authoritative, captivating and incisively written biography which, for me and millions of others, transformed a distant, dutiful respect for the “portrait Quaid” into genuinely heartfelt admiration for the real life Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

Quaid-e-Azam’s 134th Birth Anniversary (25th December 2010)

Great people celebrate birthdays or observe death anniversaries of the Fathers of their nations not merely by pompous display of festivities but by strictly following the precepts and guidelines left by their founding fathers in letter and spirit.

Quaid-e-Azam cutting his Birthday cake on 25 December,1947 in Karachi

25 Dec. 1947: Quaid reading about the felicitations on his birthday in the 'Dawn'. The headline says '71 today'

The Nation will celebrate the 134th birth anniversary of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah on Saturday, renewing the pledge to follow his guiding principle of Unity, Faith and Disciple, thus promoting prosperity, peace and harmony and consolidating democratic process in the country.





Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah whose word was law for his followers. But he never acted like a dictator. He derived his power from the people to whom he always considered himself accountable. At a time he was offered life presidentship of the All India Muslim League. He refused by saying that he would like to come before the Muslim League Council every year and get himself elected its president on the strength of his performance.

Prof Stanley Wolpret in his book ‘Jinnah of Pakistan’ says:

‘Few individuals significantly alter the course of history. Fewer still modify the map of the world. Hardly anyone can be credited with creating a nation-state. Mohammad Ali Jinnah did all three.’

Jinnah had a firm faith in the democratic system of Government and throughout his life he continued to adhere scrupulousy to the democratic norms. Muslim League activist had assembled at a Muslim League General Council meeting under his presidentship. He invited participants to express their views. The councillors said “You are our leaders, you order and we-will follow.” The Quaid said what was fun of assembling people from every nook and comer of the country. If he was to order, he would have issued a statement in the press.

An extract from Col Illahi Bakhsh's Memoirs

A Measure of The Quaid's Achievement

A Private and Poignant Chapter from the Quaid's life

A poignant extract taken from G Allana's Quaid-i-Azam Jinnah: The Story of a Nation based on the narrative of a chauffeur of Mr Jinnah who later was a famous film actor in Pakistan

Feelings About the Father of the Nation

By G.C. Contreras

At the beginning of this Congress I would like to greet its authorities and all the delegates gathered here. As with colleagues who come from every corner of Pakistan, the delegates who have come from all corners of the world are here to pay homage to the Quaid-i-Azam, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Father of the Nation, on the first hundredth anniversary of his birth. I want to make this homage extensive, as undoubtedly he would have deserved it, to the people of Pakistan, who endowed with an unbreakable will have achieved the greatness of their nation, thirty years after her beginning.

We know by experience that young nations like my own, Mexico, or like Pakistan, when they relinquish a colonial past, go through difficult and hazarduous moments for the first years of their independent life, moments full of weaknesses and dangers which test the reserves and potential energy of their human material.

Not only the culminating moment when the new nation, product of a long ideological and political struggle, has begun her life is decisive, but the daily process of maintaining her alive ensuring that she prevails against all contingencies. Notwithstanding, when a community has the will for becoming a nation, armed with its high ideals and the wish of an independent life, her place among the free peoples is assured. Of you, I can say, in the very words of Jinnah, “Pakistan has come to stay and no power on earth can destroy it.”

Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a man of great wisdom, strong ideals, an enemy of injustice who fought so that his community could exercise its due rights. His strong determination through a long and difficult struggle for the Independence of the Indian Subcontinent led him inevitably, within the historical circumstances, to the ideal of the creation of Pakistan as a free and sovereign nation.

Jinnah’s Last Message

It was, therefore, with a sense of supreme satisfaction at the fulfillment of his mission that Jinnah told the nation in his last message on 14 August, 1948:

" The foundations of your State have been laid and it is now for you to build and build as quickly and as well as you can". 

In accomplishing the task he had taken upon himself on the morrow of Pakistan's birth, Jinnah had worked himself to death, but he had, to quote richard Symons,

"contributed more than any other man to Pakistan's survivial". 

He died on 11 September, 1948. How true was Lord Pethick Lawrence, the former Secretary of State for India, when he said,

"Gandhi died by the hands of an assassin; Jinnah died by his devotion to Pakistan".

A man such as Jinnah, who had fought for the inherent rights of his people all through his life and who had taken up the somewhat unconventional and the largely misinterpreted cause of Pakistan, was bound to generate violent opposition and excite implacable hostility and was likely to be largely misunderstood. But what is most remarkable about Jinnah is that he was the recipient of some of the greatest tributes paid to any one in modern times, some of them even from those who held a diametrically opposed viewpoint.

The Aga Khan considered him  

"the greatest man he ever met" 

Beverley Nichols, the author of `Verdict on India', called him  

"the most important man in Asia",