TORONTO, Jan 31: A statue of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was erected at Canada’s leading York University, with a minister describing Jinnah as ‘George Washington of Pakistan’.

“Jinnah was a great Muslim leader. He played a dynamic role in the creation of the nation of Pakistan in 1947. And to me he is George Washington of Pakistan,” said Mike Colle, Ontario’s Minister for Citizenship and Immigration.

Mr Colle was speaking at a ceremony to unveil the sculpture of the founder of Pakistan at the snow-covered York University Campus at the northern edge of Toronto.

The minister along with Pakistani Consul General Ghalib Iqbal and President of Pakistan Students Association of York University Babar Qureshi unveiled the sculpture. The statue was created by David McDougall, a graduate student in York’s Faculty of Fine Arts.

Earlier, university president Dr Lorna Marsden paid tributes to the founder of Pakistan and said a Jinnah scholarship was established at the York University in 2004 by the consulate general and the Pakistani Students Association with an initial donation of $25,000. The amount, she said, had been increased to $50,000. It is awarded annually to one continuing undergraduate student at the university.