Dina Wadia, the daughter and only child of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, passed away at her home in New York on Thursday, a spokesperson for Wadia Group said in a statement. She was 98.
Dina Wadia is survived by her son and Wadia group chairman Nusli N Wadia, daughter Diana N Wadia, and grandsons Ness and Jeh Wadia, said the statement issued in Mumbai.
Dina was born on the night between August 14 and 15 in 1919 and according to historian Stanely Wolpert, “She made a dramatic entry into the world, announcing her arrival when her parents were enjoying a movie at a local theatre in London.”
“Oddly enough, precisely 28 years to the day and hour before the birth of Jinnah’s other offspring, Pakistan,” he wrote in his book Jinnah of Pakistan.
After marrying to a Parsi businessman she stayed in India and subsequently moved to the United States. She visited Pakistan upon the death of the Quaid, and then only once again in 2004, during the Musharraf era.
“This has been very sad and wonderful for me. May his [Jinnah’s] dream for Pakistan come true,” she wrote in the visitor’s book at the Quaid-e-Azam mausoleum in Karachi.
Condolences poured in immediately after the news on social media
