Jinnah's Fatal Handicap

Jinnah's Fatal Handicap looks at Mr. Jinnah's inflexible demand for the creation of a separate Islamic state through the prism of the disease that killed him in 1948, a year after the creation of Pakistan.Mr. Jinnah, a brilliant barrister, possessing one of the sharpest minds of his time, was unable or unwilling to get his hands on streptomycin, the first antibiotic discovered for the treatment of tuberculosis, the disease that eventually consumed him. This book dwells on the notion that if Mr. Jinnah had been less unbending and more inclined towards medical treatment, he could have provided a more enduring democratic legacy to the nation, which he singlehandedly carved out in 1947. Mr. Jinnah refused to reveal that he was suffering from tuberculosis right till the end. There is considerable scientific evidence that chronic disease significantly impairs cognition. It is tempting to speculate that Pakistan would not be tottering on the verge of collapse had Mr. Jinnah been of sounder health. The world today is more dangerous than ever. We should not permit wily politicians to splinter us based on religion or creed to accomplish their geopolitical agenda. All mankind belongs to a single species.