KARACHI, Jan 12: Tributes were paid at a meeting here on Saturday to the late Ahmed E. H. Jaffer for his services rendered to the Pakistan Movement and for his struggle to secure the rights of the Muslims in undivided India.

Speaking at the launching of a biography, Ahmed E. H. Jaffer and the Making of Pakistan,” organized by the Ahmed E. H. Jaffer Foundation, speakers said Ahmed Jaffer was one of the most trusted lieutenants of the Quaid-i-Azam.

They said coming from a well-established business family young Ahmed Jaffer was moved by the miseries of the poor Muslims, therefore he decided to enter politics so that the rights of the downtrodden could be secured.

They said he was elected from Poona (now known as Pune), Maharashtra, to the undivided India’s parliament and was the youngest and one of the most vocal members of the parliament. He started his political career with the Muslim League and remained a Leaguer till his death.

Speakers said looking at his parliamentary contributions and how he presented the case of the Muslim League, the viceroy, in his bid to win him over from the Muslim League, at that time offered him any office that he liked, but Ahmed Jaffer refused, saying he would prefer to remain loyal to the Muslim League and its leader, Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

They said he had inherited the quality of serving humanity from his father, Sir Ebrahim Haroon Jaffer, which had further been cultivated and groomed when he served as a secretary to his father.

They said the Jaffer family was one of the few leading business families which had left their established business and trading empires in the areas which later became India and migrated to Pakistan after its creation.

They said though Ahmed Jaffer was also a member of parliament here, he did not join the government and even declined the offer of the Quaid-i-Azam to become Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, saying the country needed him more here.

They said he stayed back in the country to lay the foundation-stone of industrial, trading and business base of the country to make it work and make it a success. He also greatly helped with the rehabilitation of refugees soon after independence.

They said besides his services in the country, he also acted as its unofficial envoy and during his extensive travels abroad he always tried to convey and communicate Pakistan’s point of view in order to win support for the country. He also contested the election for the president of Pakistan against Ghulam Ishaq Khan.

His love for Pakistan could be gauged from the fact that once though he was very sick, he went to Islamabad to participate in a seminar on Pakistan. Due to his sickness he died there, and his body was brought to Karachi from Islamabad.

The 200-page biography has been written by Farishta Murzban Dinshaw and would be distributed to libraries and educational institutions in the country.

Sindh Governor Mohammedmian Soomro, Federal Minister of Law Shahida Jamil, the Chief Executive’s Adviser, Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada, Qutubuddin Aziz, Syed Hashim Raza, Shaheryar M. Khan, and son of the late Mr Jaffer, Abdul Kader Jaffer, who is Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and others also spoke at the ceremony.