REFERENCE Fakir Syed Aijazuddin’s article ‘Retirement homes’ (June 2), I would like to put the record straight about Gen (r) Iskandar Mirza having “brought a two-storey apartment on Exhibition Road” in the UK after Ayub Khan ousted him in November 1958.

The fact is that my father was exiled to Britain unlike others who settled in London by choice. Upon arrival in London, he stayed for the first few days at the Hyde Park Hotel and later got temporary accommodation at flat No.5, Pelham Court, Fulham Road. Subsequently, through his good friends, Mr and Mrs. Abul Hasan Ispahani, he rented a modest flat at Prince’s Gate near Knightsbridge and lived there till his death in 1969. He had limited means and lived on an annual pension equivalent of 3,000 pounds he got as a retired major-general and ex-president.

At the time of his death on Nov 13,1969, after settling debts etc, he had a total of 165 pounds and 74 pence in his bank account, which I, along with my siblings, inherited.

It greatly pains me to see gravediggers going after one of the few honest leaders Pakistan had and one who lived his exile years in silent dignity and without badmouthing the regime or the country unlike many others who never missed an opportunity to bring disrepute to Pakistan.

Mrs Fakhr-e-Jehan Asad Ali
Daughter of last Governor-General and first President of Pakistan,
Gen Iskander Mirza
Karachi

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2016