Two Mumbai-based Parsi doctors have been posthumously nominated for Pakistan’s highest civilian award, the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, for keeping Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s terminal illness confidential before Partition. The award is scheduled to be conferred at a ceremony in March 2027.Dr Jal Ratanji Patel and radiologist Dr Jal Dhaybho-Koo had examined Jinnah’s X-ray in 1946 and diagnosed him with advanced tuberculosis. According to Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre’s book, Freedom at Midnight, the doctors concluded that Jinnah had only a year or two to live. Despite the seriousness of his condition, the doctors maintained professional confidentiality.
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Pakistan’s federal minister for planning and chairman of its Awards Committee, Ahsan Iqbal, said their secrecy amounted to a “quiet but extraordinary service”. He argued that knowledge of Jinnah’s poor health could have affected the course of events leading to Partition.Iqbal cited former Viceroy Lord Mountbatten’s later assertion that, had he known how seriously ill Jinnah was, he might have delayed Partition. The minister said the doctors’ adherence to professional confidentiality inadvertently contributed to the circumstances that enabled the creation of Pakistan.
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