KARACHI: “We crossed rivers of blood and piles of dead bodies while entering Pakistan, a country that is a great divine blessing. If anything bad happens to our homeland, people living here will face subjugation like the millions of Muslims who are suffering in India,” said 92-year-old Moib Ali Khan, who was an active member of the Pakistan Movement before August 1947.
“I remember seeing bodies of those who were killed by Hindus and Sikhs in the streets of New Delhi. Many of these corpses of Muslims were rotting, but there was no one to take them away for burial. Everything was in a mess,” Khan shared his harrowing tale of Partition while talking to Arab News on Tuesday.
Born in 1926 in Rampur, Khan is one of the few people who witnessed the creation of Pakistan who is still alive today. Before leaving New Delhi for Karachi, he was an active member of the Muslim League National Guard, a quasi-military group associated with the All-India Muslim League.
“When on August 7, 1947, Quaid-e-Azam (Great Leader) Muhammad Ali Jinnah left New Delhi for Karachi, our commander ordered us to doff our uniform since the attacks by Hindu mobs had multiplied,” he added.
He recalled meeting the founder of Pakistan in New Delhi and finding him inspirational when he was running his own furniture business. He recounted how Jinnah’s sister Fatima came into his shop and asked him to come to the Jinnah home to fix some furniture. He visited the house the next day, but had a disagreement over the price of fixing the piece with Fatima.
“The Quaid-e-Azam was watching us from his meeting room,” Khan continued. “He came to us and asked if we were angry with ‘Bahi Ji’ (Fatima Jinnah). He also asked us what we were demanding.” Jinnah then negotiated a rate with him.
“Until then, I did not know the two high-profile figures. Later, one of their servants told me that he was the ‘King of Muslims’ and people addressed him as Jinnah Sahib,” he added.
Khan is anxious about the current state of the country, especially the deep-rooted corruption. “We have seen and experienced the pain and humiliation in colonial India. The freedom we enjoy today has cost us millions of lives and should not be downplayed,” he added.
Muslims in the Indian subcontinent were poor, having limited access to businesses that were dominated by Hindus.
“After Partition, when we came to Pakistan, there was an acute shortage of everything, even fabric,” said Sheikh Muhammad Zaki, 93-year-old chairman of Zaki Industrial Corporation.
“We would chase shipments coming at the Karachi Harbor and buy things from Hindu owners at throwaway prices since they were leaving Pakistan and wanted to offload their liabilities,” Zaki told Arab News.
“Initially, we purchased and sold items. Now, we make and sell them.” So successful was he, that he now runs multiple businesses.
Like Moib Ali Khan, Zaki is worried about present-day Pakistan. “Corruption flows from top to bottom,” he observed. “It has also infected the general public. It must end now.”
As Pakistan enters its 71st year on August 14, 2018, the country is in the process of forming a new government following recent general elections.
Like many young Pakistanis, nonagenarians like Khan and Zaki seem to be enthralled by the slogan of tabdeeli (or change) that has been raised by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
“All eyes are set on the PTI leader who wants to weed out corruption from the country,” said Khan.
“It’s going to be daunting task,” Zaki added, “but it needs to be done.”
I saw Pakistan come into being: Eyewitness accounts of the Pakistan Movement
I saw Pakistan come into being: Eyewitness accounts of the Pakistan Movement
- We sacrificed the lives of millions to get this country, says 92-year-old Moib Ali Khan
- No compromise on freedom, but the country must rid itself of corruption, says Sheikh Muhammad Zaki
Pakistan opposition to continue protest over ex-PM Khan’s health amid conflicting reports
- Pakistan’s government insists that the ex-premier’s eye condition has improved
- Khan’s personal doctor says briefed on his condition but cannot confirm veracity
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s opposition alliance on Monday vowed to continue their protest sit-in at parliament and demanded “clarity” over the health of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, following conflicting medical reports about his eye condition.
The 73-year-old former cricket star-turned-politician has been held at the high-security Adiala prison in Rawalpindi since 2023. Concerns arose about his health last week when a court-appointed lawyer, Barrister Salman Safdar, was asked to visit Khan at the jail to assess his living conditions. Safdar reported that Khan had suffered “severe vision loss” in his right eye due to central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO), leaving him with just 15 percent sight in the affected eye.
On Sunday, a team of doctors from various hospitals visited the prison to examine Khan’s eye condition, according to the Adiala jail superintendent, who later submitted his report in the court. On Monday, a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice Yahya Afridi observed that based on reports from the prison authorities and the amicus curiae, Khan’s “living conditions in jail do not presently exhibit any perverse aspects.” It noted that Khan had “generally expressed satisfaction with the prevailing conditions of his confinement” and had not sought facilities beyond the existing level of care.
Having carefully perused both reports in detail, the bench observed that their general contents and the overall picture emerging therefrom are largely consistent. The opposition alliance, which continued to stage its sit-in for a fourth consecutive day on Monday, held a meeting at the parliament building on Monday evening to deliberate on the emerging situation and discuss their future course of action.
“The sit-in will continue till there is clarity on the matter of [Khan's] health,” Sher Ali Arbab, a lawmaker from Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party who has been participating in the sit-in, told Arab News, adding that PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan and Opposition Leader in Senate Raja Nasir Abbas had briefed them about their meeting with doctors who had visited Khan on Sunday.
Speaking to reporters outside parliament, Gohar said the doctors had informed them that Khan’s condition had improved.
“They said, 'There has been a significant and satisfactory improvement.' With that satisfactory improvement, we also felt satisfied,” he said, noting that the macular thickness in Khan’s eye had reportedly dropped from 550 to 300 microns, a sign of subsiding swelling.
Gohar said the party did not want to politicize Khan’s health.
“We are not doctors, nor is this our field,” he said, noting that Khan’s personal physician in Lahore, Dr. Aasim Yusuf, and his eye specialist Dr. Khurram Mirza had also sought input from the Islamabad-based medical team.
“Our doctors also expressed satisfaction over the report.”
CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS
Despite Gohar’s cautious optimism, Khan’s personal physician, Dr. Yusuf, issued a video message on Monday, saying he could neither “confirm nor deny the veracity” of the government’s claims.
“Because I have not seen him myself and have not been able to participate in his care... I’m unable to confirm what we have been told,” Yusuf said.
He appealed to authorities to grant him or fellow physician, Dr. Faisal Sultan, immediate access to Khan, arguing that the ex-premier should be moved to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad for specialist care.
Speaking to Arab News, PTI’s central information secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram said Khan’s sister and their cousin, Dr. Nausherwan Burki, will speak to media on Tuesday to express their views about the situation.
The government insists that Khan’s condition has improved.
“His eye [condition] has improved and is better than before,” State Minister Talal Chaudhry told the media in a brief interaction on Monday.
“The Supreme Court of Pakistan is involved, and doctors are involved. What medicine he receives, whether he needs to be hospitalized or sent home, these decisions are made by doctors. Neither lawyers nor any political party will decide this.”
