Quaid-e-Azam House to become centre of nation-building activities

The Quaid-e-Azam House Museum, which is situated at the crossing of Sharea Faisal and Fatima Jinnah Road, will be turned into a nation-building institute for school and college students.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the purpose was signed at the Quaid-e-Azam House Museum on February 8 by Sindh Culture Secretary Ghulam Akber Laghari, The Jinnah Society President Liaquat H Merchant, who is also the administrator of the Estate of Quaid-e-Azam, and Karachi Council on Foreign Relations Chairman Ikram Sehgal.

Formerly the Flagstaff House, the Quaid-e-Azam House was one of the three real estate properties of the nation’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He had purchased it before Partition. According to his will, it was to be sold and the proceeds distributed between the Sindh Madrasa in Karachi, the Islamia College in Peshawar and the Aligarh Muslim University in India.

Merchant, who is the grandson of one of Jinnah’s sisters, said the founder of the nation had purchased the Flagstaff House in 1943 for his personal residence. It was later sold by Merchant and Syed Hashim Raza as administrators of Jinnah’s estate to the federal government in accordance with the order of the late Sindh High Court chief justice Abdul Hayee Qureshi.

The order laid down the purposes for which the government would use this property, and an advisory council was established for this purpose that included the administrators of the Quaid’s estate.

Despite repeated requests and reminders to the successive governments from 1985 until the time of the passage of the 18th constitutional amendment, no serious step or action was taken.

After the 18th amendment, this property was transferred to the Sindh government. Merchant said that Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and Culture Secretary Laghari took personal interest in it. He proposed using it as an institute for nation-building.

“After considerable meetings and discussions, the MoU was finalised and signed at the Quaid-e-Azam House, marking a historic day for Pakistan, as the Quaid-e-Azam House will now become the centre of activities involving nation-building, which will be highly beneficial to Pakistan and its citizens,” said Merchant.

The board of management formed for the institute comprises the CM and the chief secretary as ex-officio chairman and ex-officio co-chairman, Merchant and Sehgal as executive vice chairmen, and Commodore (retd) Sadeed A Malik as member secretary.

Among the board’s members are the V Corps Karachi commander, the city commissioner, Merchant, Sehgal, bankers Sultan Ali Allana (HBL) and Shazad Dada (UBL), Lightstone Publishers MD Ameena Saiyid, philanthropist Nadira Panjwani, architect Akeel Bilgrami, and representatives of the finance, education and antiquities departments.

The board will establish a public library called the Jinnah Library at the Quaid-e-Azam House. It will establish an audio-visual centre that will show films and documentaries on Jinnah, the Pakistan Movement and other leaders of the movement. The board will expand the museum, which will house relics and Jinnah’s belongings.

It will organise educational and debate competitions, programmes for senior school students, art exhibitions, seminars, talk shows and other similar events for the benefit of the citizens, especially the younger generation, on the aspects leading to the creation of Pakistan.

The board will hold talks on Jinnah and other leaders of Pakistan, on important aspects relating to Pakistan, including foreign relations, finance, culture, education, higher studies, universities and any other subject that will be of benefit to the country.

It will organise talks by parliamentarians, and by ambassadors, diplomats and consuls general on the development of international relations and diplomatic relations with Pakistan. The board will set up an auditorium where students can watch and participate in plays, speeches and debate competitions in the English, Urdu and Sindhi languages.

“In general, the board will carry out all such work and activities that may contribute as a nation-building exercise in Pakistan by the dissemination of information on historical events leading to the creation of Pakistan,” said Merchant.