The Wazir Mansion ( ur, ) known officially as Quaid-i-Azam Birthplace MuseumWazir Mansion forgotten?
Dawn (newspaper), Published 26 December 2009, Retrieved 20 August 2020 is a former family home in the Kharadar district of

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

, Sindh,

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

which is considered the birthplace of the country's founder,

Muhammad Ali Jinnah Muhammad Ali Jinnah (, ; born Mahomedali Jinnahbhai; 25 December 1876 – 11 September 1948) was a barrister, politician, and the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until the ...

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

Birthplace of Jinnah

"It was an inauspicious day of December 25, 1876, when the founder of our homeland, i.e. Pakistan, was born."Wazir Mansion: then and now
Dawn (newspaper), Published 17 June 2013, Retrieved 20 August 2020 Wazir Mansion now may be the widely accepted birthplace of Quaid-e-Azam, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of

. 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 Muhammad 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 Kathiawar () is a peninsula, near the far north of India's west coast, of about bordering the Arabian Sea. It is bounded by the Gulf of Kutch in the northwest and by the Gulf of Khambhat (Gulf of Cambay) in the east. In the northeast, i ...

, in the province of

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

, 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. 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. Muhammad 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,

, British India.Fatima Jinnah. "My brother" page 5. "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."

After Pakistan's independence

The

Government of Pakistan The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the four provinces, two autonomous territorie ...

, in 1953, acquired this historic building. Under Ancient Monuments Preservation Act, the government protected it. Then the Pakistan Public Works Department 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. Now this birthplace museum is a three-storey building with a library and museum galleries.

Museum

The house now serves as a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

and a national

archive An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual ...

. "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." There used to be a Karachi Circular Railway station called Wazir Mansion. In 2009, Wazir Mansion was closed for renovation temporarily but was reopened for visitors later.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wazir Mansion Museums in Karachi Biographical museums in Pakistan Heritage sites in Karachi Houses in Pakistan Houses completed in 1886 1886 establishments in British India 1880s architecture Memorials to Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Birthplace of Jinnah

After Pakistan's independence

Museum

See also

References

External links