'Quiet but extraordinary service’: Mumbai doctors who kept Jinnah’s illness a top secret to get Pakistan’s highest honour

Two Mumbai-based Parsi doctors who treated Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah and kept the severity of his illness confidential are set to receive Pakistan’s highest civilian honour posthumously.

Physician Dr Jal Ratanji Patel and radiologist Dr Jal Dhaybho-Koo have been nominated for the Nishan-e-Imtiaz by Pakistan. The honour is expected to be formally conferred at an investiture ceremony in March 2027. Pakistan announced the civil awards on August 14, with 355 individuals recognised across various fields.

READ THIS: Imran Khan returns to Adiala Jail after doctors clear him following Supreme Court-ordered medical check-up

Ahsan Iqbal recalls doctors’ role

Pakistan Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, who heads the country’s Awards Committee, announced the nomination in a post on X.

“I feel honoured to have had the privilege, as Chairman of the Awards Committee, of nominating for the Nishan-e-Imtiaz two remarkable doctors, a physician and a radiologist, both members of Bombay's Parsi community, who faithfully guarded the secret of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s terminal illness,” Iqbal wrote.

Iqbal described their decision to maintain confidentiality as a “quiet but extraordinary service”. He said their adherence to professional secrecy at a crucial moment in history ultimately became significant to the circumstances surrounding the creation of Pakistan.

What did the doctors know about Jinnah’s health?

Patel and Dhaybho-Koo examined Jinnah’s X-rays in 1946 and diagnosed him with advanced tuberculosis. Historical accounts cited in Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre’s Freedom at Midnight suggest that the doctors believed Jinnah had only around one or two years to live.

Jinnah’s illness was reportedly known only to a small circle, including his sister Fatima Jinnah and the two doctors. Historian Akbar Ahmed has also written that Jinnah had been suffering from tuberculosis since the 1930s, at a time when effective antibiotic treatment was not available.

ALSO READ: India’s tit-for-tat move: Delhi dismantles security barriers around Pakistan High Commission after Islamabad’s action

Could Jinnah’s illness have changed Partition?

The secrecy surrounding Jinnah’s health has long been linked to debates over the timing of Partition and the creation of Pakistan.

In his X post, Iqbal referred to former British Viceroy Lord Louis Mountbatten and claimed that knowledge of the seriousness of Jinnah’s illness could have led to a delay in the transfer of power.

Iqbal cited an account from Freedom at Midnight, quoting Mountbatten as saying: “If I had known all this at the time, history would have taken a different course. I would have delayed the decision to grant Independence by several months. Pakistan would not have come into existence.”

The claim remains part of the historical debate around Partition rather than an established certainty about what would have happened had Jinnah’s illness become public.

Jinnah died on September 11, 1948, barely a year after Pakistan became independent. The posthumous honour for Patel and Dhaybho-Koo therefore links their medical confidentiality to one of the most consequential political episodes in South Asian history.