NEW DELHI: “I wish Hindustan prosperity and peace,” declared Qaed-e-Azam Jinnah on the eve of his departure to Karachi this afternoon [Aug 7] in a statement to the Press. “I bid farewell to the citizens of Delhi amongst whom I had many friends of all communities and I earnestly appeal to everyone to live in this great and historic city with peace. The past must be buried and let us start afresh as two independent sovereign States of Hindustan and Pakistan,” the statement continued.

The time and place of Mr. Jinnah’s departure had been kept secret and the Viceroy’s Dakota in which he flew took off from the Palam airfield an hour and a quarter before the scheduled time. … Later … Mr. Jinnah’s Secretary told Pressmen that the departure was deliberately pre-timed by one hour because Mr. Jinnah wanted to avoid all pomp and show. It is learnt that Mr. Jinnah has sold his Delhi residence, No. 10 Aurangzeb Road, to Seth Ramkrishna Dalmia.

[Meanwhile, as reported from Karachi,] Surging crowds broke several rings of police cordons and mobbed the Mauripur airfield when Qaed-e-Azam M.A. Jinnah, Governor-General-designate of Pakistan, landed at 5-30 p.m. today [Aug 7] in the Viceroy’s personal Dakota dressed in silk ‘sherwani’. Mr. Jinnah emerged first out of the plane and was followed by his sister Miss Fatima Jinnah in white satin.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2022