NEW YORK, Nov 2 (APP):NEW YORK, Nov 2 (APP): Dina Wadia, the daughter of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, passed away at her home in New York on Thursday, a Pakistani diplomat has confirmed. She was 98.
No details were immediately available, but Pakistan’s Consul General Raja Ali Ejaz told APP he was trying to contact her son and Chairman of the Mumbai-based Wadia Group, Nusli Wadia, who is reported to have arrived in New York. He said he would discuss with Wadia about his family’s plans for her burial.
Dina Wadia was leading a quiet life in New York, and never seen at any event here.
In 1976, Dina Wadia attended a reception at the Pakistani Mission to the U.N. in New York on the occasion of 100th birth anniversary of her father.
She was warmly received by Pakistan’s Ambassador at that time, Iqbal Akhund. She extended her good wishes for the progress of Pakistan and prosperity of its people.
The Quaid had raised Dina alone after separation from his wife, Rattanbai Petit, and her subsequent demise.
Although the Quaid loved her deeply, their relationship became strained after Dina fell in love with and married an Indian Parsi named Neville Wadia at the age of 17.
Dina and Neville lived in Mumbai and had two children, a boy and a girl, before the couple divorced.
Dina first visited Pakistan in 1948, when the year-old country had lost its founder, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
The last time she visited Pakistan was in 2004, accompanied by her son, Nasli Wadia, and grandchildren, Jehangir and Ness.
After visiting the mausoleum of her father, she had written in the visitors’ book: “This has been very sad and wonderful for me. May his [Jinnah’s] dream for Pakistan come true.”