Now Reading: Pakistan to honour two Indian doctors who hid Jinnah’s illness
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Pakistan to honour two Indian doctors who hid Jinnah’s illness
Pakistan will confer its highest civilian award, the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, on two Indian doctors from Mumbai's Parsi community who kept Muhammad Ali Jinnah's terminal tuberculosis a secret in 1946, a year before Partition.…
Pakistan will confer its highest civilian award, the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, on two Indian doctors from Mumbai's Parsi community who kept Muhammad Ali Jinnah's terminal tuberculosis a secret in 1946, a year before Partition. Minister Ahsan Iqbal announced the honour on Independence Day, stating that Lord Mountbatten later acknowledged that had he known Jinnah's true health, he might have delayed Partition, potentially jeopardising Pakistan's creation. The doctors' names were not disclosed.
Jinnah died in September 1948, 13 months after Pakistan's formation. The Nishan-e-Imtiaz, or Order of Excellence, is Pakistan's highest civilian award, given for global recognition or outstanding national service. Past foreign recipients include Indian actor Dilip Kumar (1998), Switzerland's Aga Khan IV, and former Queen of Nepal Ratna Rajya Lakshmi Devi Shah.
The awards were announced on August 14 and will be formally conferred at a presidential investiture ceremony on Pakistan Day, March 23, 2026.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The secret these doctors kept for over 80 years touches a raw nerve in India-Pakistan relations. If Partition had been delayed in 1947, the entire subcontinent map might look different today. Jinnah's tuberculosis was incurable then, he was dead within two years of Pakistan's birth. The doctors' professional oath became a historical fulcrum. Watch for the March 23, 2026 investiture: if the doctors' names remain undisclosed, the award stays a symbolic gesture. The real question is how India's government and public will react to honouring men who arguably made Pakistan possible.
Source: thehindu.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
