Wazir Mansion

Wazir Mansion
وزیر مینشن
Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah Birth Place Kharadar Karachi
Alternative names Quaid-e-Azam House
General information
Location Kharadar, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan[1]
Address Chagla Street (now Barkati Street)[1]
Coordinates 24°51′3″N 66°59′51″E / 24.85083°N 66.99750°E / 24.85083; 66.99750Coordinates: 24°51′3″N 66°59′51″E / 24.85083°N 66.99750°E / 24.85083; 66.99750
Current tenants Museum
Completed 1866
Renovated 2008
Owner Government of Pakistan (before 2011)
Government of Sindh (since 2011)
Technical details
Floor count Ground + 2
Design and construction
Architect H Sohak

Wazir Mansion (Urdu: وزیر مینشن‎) known officially as Quaid-i-Azam Birthplace Museum[2] is a former family home in the Kharadar district of Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan which is considered the birthplace of the country's founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah.[1]

"It was built during 1860-1870 with stone masonry in lime and jute mortar to suit the volatile weather of Karachi."[1]

Birthplace

"It was an auspicious day of December 25, 1876, when the founder of our homeland, i.e. Pakistan, was born."[1] Wazir Mansion now may be the widely-accepted birthplace of Quaid-e-Azam, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. Once, his birthplace was misunderstood to be Jhirk, an old small town near Karachi, which was later revealed to be untrue. The reality was disclosed in the book My Brother written in the 1960s by Muhammed Ali Jinnah's sister, Fatima Jinnah in his biography wherein she described the salient features of her brother's life. She mentioned their ancestral village, Paneli, in the state of Gondal, Kathiawar, in the province of Gujarat, in present-day India. Their father, Mr. Jinnah Bhai Poonja, had settled in Karachi because of a business partnership with an English Merchant company named Grams Trading Company, whose office was then located in Karachi.[3] Jinnah's ancestral family and their progenies including M. A. Jinnah's daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren have been residents, to this day, of the province of Gujarat and Bombay. Muhammed Ali Jinnah's father got the house (now Wazir Mansion) for rent in 1874 and settled here for some time. By 1900, he again returned to his native state, Gujarat, British India.[4] "Gowardhan Das was also among the owners of this building from whom Wazir Ali Ponawala (from whom the house had got its name 'Wazir Mansion') bought it at some point in 1904."[1]

After Pakistan's independence

The Government of Pakistan, in 1953, acquired this historic building. Under Ancient Monuments Preservation Act, 1904, the government protected it. Then the Pakistan Public Works Department (PWD) was assigned the work of its conservation and renovation. It was formally inaugurated as Jinnah's birthplace museum on 14 August 1953. A project of strengthening, preservation, and rehabilitation was completed by the government in 2010.[1] Now this birthplace museum is a three-storey building with a library and museum galleries.

Museum

The house now serves as a museum and a national archive. "The house where Mohammad Ali Jinnah spent 16 years of his childhood and youth is a precious national monument that provides inspiration to our nation."[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 http://www.dawn.com/news/1018712, 'Wazir Mansion: then and now', Dawn newspaper, Published 17 June 2013, Retrieved 19 February 2017
  2. ↑ Museums of Sindh, Brochure, Government of Sindh 2012
  3. ↑ Khalid Siraj. Jinnah nama (Urdu) p. 11. Published by Dua publications, Al-Hamd Market Urdu Bazar, Lahore.
  4. ↑ Fatima Jinnah. "My brother" page 5.
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