Life on a Throne

Since Pakistan's creation last August, the world has heard little of its creator, Mohamed Ali Jinnah. After a month of illness in Lahore, Jinnah recently returned to Karachi, gaunter than ever. From there last week came reports of Jinnah's life as Governor General of what he proudly calls "the fifth largest nation in the world."*

Lonely Splendor. A high Indian official, one of the few visitors who saw Jinnah during his Lahore illness, said: "When I started talking, I noticed that the Qaid-e-Azam looked distracted. He was constantly touching his right finger tips with his thumb as if he were silently counting something. Suddenly, without any reference to what I was saying, the Qaid-e-Azam said: 'It's a fraud.'

"I was considerably surprised. But realizing that he was not referring to me, I continued with my business,, After a good deal more of counting the Qaid-e-Azam said: 'Swindle.' Then again, 'Swindle --regular swindle.' 'Fraud . .. swindle . . . cheat,' came in quick succession. Then other words of a less statesmanly nature followed."

Jinnah now lives in lonely splendor at Government House in Karachi. Frosty and aloof as ever, he keeps his advisers and ministers at a respectful distance. His constant companion, and only close friend, is his 54-year-old sister Fatima. After their parents died, when Fatima was nine, Jinnah brought her up. She was a dentist for a year in Bombay; her first patient was brother Mohamed. She gave up dentistry to look after him when his wife died.

"FJ." Since Jinnah became Governor General, Fatima has blossomed, in her wraithlike fashion, as official hostess. When Jinnah's illness kept him in Lahore, Fatima paid regal visits every day to hospitals, refugee camps and schools. If photographers failed to turn up, Fatima was beside herself. Lahore's famed rose gardens were renamed Gulistan-i-Fatima (Miss Fatima Gardens). Her car sported a blue personal flag with the initials "FJ" encircled in the center.

During a big Jinnah public meeting in Lahore, a mullah (priest) lashed out, during his preliminary prayer in the Urdu language, at women who violate purdah (seclusion). Fatima, sitting a few feet from the mullah, with her face, as always, unveiled, did not take in the criticism; neither she nor her brother (who was sitting on a golden throne high above the crowd) speaks Urdu, the language of Jinnah's western domain.

Now & then Fatima tries to draw some human warmth out of Jinnah, who completely lacks a sense of humor. During a trip in the Governor General's personal plane, Jinnah essayed a joke with his fellow passengers, forgot the point, mumbled to a stop. "You didn't finish," chided sister Fatima.

*Pakistan, whose population is estimated at 70,000,000, has rivals for fifth place in Japan (73,000,000), Germany (prewar: 70,000,000).

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