Dina Wadia, Jinnah's Daughter, Passes Away At 98

Dina Wadia, daughter of Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah, passed away at her home in New York on Thursday (Nov 2). She was 98.

Jinnah's daughter moved to New York several decades ago. She was staying alone there with her staff.

Her son is the renowned Parsi businessman Nusli Wadia, who heads the Wadia Group which owns Bombay Dyeing, Britannia Industries and Go Air.

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Read more about her:

• Dina Wadia was born on August 15, 1919.
• She married Bombay-based Parsi businessman Neville Wadia despite her father's objection. She stayed back in India after Partition. Later, she moved to the United Kingdom. She visited Pakistan only after her father's death, reported The Express Tribune.

According to Mokerrom Hossain's 'From Protest to Freedom: The Birth of Bangladesh', when Jinnah told her that there were millions of Muslim boys in India and she could have anyone she chose, Dina replied: "Father, there were millions of Muslim girls in India. Why did you not marry one of them?"

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• Dina last visited Pakistan in 2004 during a landmark cricket series between Pakistan and India on the invitation of former president General (retd.) Pervez Musharraf. She considered cricket diplomacy to be an enthralling dimension.
• Her paternal grandparents were from Gujarat. They moved to Karachi for business in the mid-1870s. It is the same place where her father was born.
• Dina's mother was a member of two of the elite class families of Bombay, the Petit-Tata family.
• In 2007, Dina Wadia filed a writ petition before the Bombay High Court about the Jinnah House. She claimed Jinnah House could not be classified as "evacuee property" as her father had died without leaving behind a will. In her plea, she demanded that the house be handed over to her.
• She is survived by her daughter Diana N Wadia, son Nusli N Wadia, her grandsons Ness and Jeh Wadia and two great grandchildren Jah and Ella Wadia.

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Picture Credit: Samaa.tv