Two Mumbai doctors who kept Jinnah's illness secret to get Pakistan's highest civilian honour
The doctors – physician Dr Jal Ratanji Patel and radiologist Dr Jal Dhaybho-Koo – have been nominated by Islamabad for the Nishan-e-Imtiaz award.
Two Parsi doctors from Mumbai will be posthumously awarded Pakistan's highest civilian honour, the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, for concealing the illness of the country's founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The doctors, Dr Jal Ratanji Patel, a physician, and Dr Jal Dhaybho-Koo, a radiologist, have been nominated by Islamabad for the prestigious award to be conferred in March 2027, announced by Pakistan's federal minister for planning, development and special initiatives, Ahsan Iqbal, on social media platform X. The doctors examined Jinnah's X-ray in 1946 and diagnosed him with advanced-stage tuberculosis, concluding he had only a year or two to live, as reported in Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre's book 'Freedom at Midnight'.
The doctors kept Jinnah's terminal illness a secret, maintaining 'absolute professional confidentiality' at a 'critical moment', which inadvertently contributed to the creation of Pakistan, according to Iqbal.
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