2 Mumbai Parsi Doctors Who Kept Jinnah’s Illness Secret To Get Pakistan’s Highest Civilian Award

Pakistan has nominated two Indian Parsi doctors, Dr Jal Ratanji Patel and Dr Jal Dhaybho-Koo, for its highest civilian award, the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, for their posthumous service in maintaining the confidentiality of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah's terminal illness during the pre-Partition period of 1947. The doctors, members of Bombay's Parsi community, examined Jinnah's X-ray in 1946 and concluded that his tuberculosis had reached an advanced stage, giving him only a year or two to live.

They kept Jinnah's illness a secret, fearing that disclosure could have affected the timeline of Partition and the creation of Pakistan. Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Ahsan Iqbal, announced the nominations on X. The honor will be conferred posthumously on March 2027. According to Iqbal, Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy of British India, believed that knowing Jinnah's illness might have led to a delay in Partition, potentially altering history. Jinnah died of pulmonary tuberculosis on September 11, 1948, just over a year after Partition.