'Miss Jinnah accepted Combined Opposition Parties nomination only after Abida Sultan's efforts'

In the Memoirs of the Rebel Princess, the former Heir Apparent of Bhopal and also President of her State's Cabinet reveals that contrary to the general belief, none of the 1964 opposition politicians had mustered enough courage to ask Miss Fatima Jinnah to stand against President Ayub Khan in the elections.
It was she, the late Princess Abida Sultan, who talked Miss Jinnah into becoming the candidate of the Combined Opposition Parties (COP) for the President-ship of Pakistan.
In her 315-page autobiography launched here on Tuesday at the National Library, the late Princess says she was flabbergasted to hear from Miss Jinnah as to why should she stand for the elections as she had not been asked by the opposition politicians to be their candidate and that she herself (the Princess) did not represent anyone.
The Princess made the revelation while discussing the circumstances of her entry into active politics in Pakistan by joining the faction of Pakistan Muslim League that was known as the Council League.
Besides this chapter in the book, Princess Abida Sultaan has picked Miss Jinnah up as one of the "six famous personalities that left the deepest imprint" on her. The list tops her great-grandmother, Begum Sultan Jahan Begum, Mrs Sarojini Naidu, Sir Zafarullah Khan, Miss Fatima Jinnah, Queen Elizabeth-II and Sahebzada Yaqub Ali Khan in this order.
She came to know Miss Jinnah from latter's visits with the Quaid to Bhopal in the pre-partition days and had met her a few times in Karachi too.
She described Quaid's sister having "immense integrity, moral strength and unbending support of her brother's mission in the creation of Pakistan."
She says that as the date for presidential polls neared, the opposition had no candidate and despite reports Miss Jinnah had been requested to stand for the COP, she had made no comment on the proposal.
So one day she called on her and urged her to accept the nomination of the Combined Opposition Parties.
Contrary to the impression given by opposition leaders, the Princess was told that "none of the COP leaders have asked me to lead them.
They all came to plead for support and funds for themselves. No one has asked me to lead the COP except you and whom do you represent yourself?" Miss Jinnah asked her.
After that meeting Princess Abida went to see the COP leaders to tell them that Miss Jinnah would accept if they jointly met and discussed their offer with her. And the rest is history.
Another very little known, or almost forgotten is the role that her illustrious father, Nawab Hamidullah Khan, as Chancellor of the Chamber of Princess in 1947 and his then Constitutional Adviser, Sir Muhammad Zafarullah Khan had played in creation of a third power bloc in the sub-continent to achieve what she described "a more equitable balance" in the post-British period.
The scheme was a grouping together of the princely states to emerge as "Rajasthan to which a number of Hindu princely states, notably Jodhpur, Indore, Kashmir and Bikaner had given a serious thought.
They had, according to the Princess, thought such a bloc would counter India's overwhelming weight against Pakistan that was yet to emerge on the map.
Surprisingly, one does not find a reference to this effort in the four versions of Sir Zafarullah's autobiography, including one recently published transcript of his interviews with the Oral History Department of a Columbia University.
The launching was an overcrowded function attended among others by eminent scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan and his wife, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri, Senior Adviser to the President, Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada, former Governor Air Marshal Nur Khan and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ikramul Haq.
In their introductory speeches, former Foreign Minister Sahebzada Yaqub Ali Khan and Dr Zawwar Hassan Zaidi of Quaid-e-Azam papers cell spoke of late Princess Sultaan's father, the last reigning Nawab Hamidullah Khan of Bhopal, and said the book was unusually candid.
Later, the author's son, Shahriyar Mohammed Khan, presented a slide show about the former princely state that was merged into India after Independence and its various rulers, three of which were women of eminent distinction.