wazir mansion
Sights/Landmarks
Wazir Mansion or the official Quaid-e-Azam Birthplace Museum was a family home in the Kharadar area of Karachi. It was built during the period 1860 and 1870, and is considered the birthplace of the country's founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The house now serves as a museum and national archive, and has been declared a protected national monument by the Government of Pakistan.
The two-storey building belongs to the colonial period, standing solemnly on a street known as Chagla Street (now Barkati Street). It was built with stone masonry in lime and jute mortar to suit the volatile weather of Karachi. Jinnah's parents - Jinnah Bhai Ponja and Sakina Bano (Mithi Bai) - moved to Karachi after 1874 from their ancestral village Paneli (now in Gujrat, India) to Karachi and acquired a two-room apartment in this building. Jinnah spent 16 years of his life at Wazir Mansion before leaving to pursue higher studies. After the birth of Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah, the house was sold to someone else by the owner.
In 1953, the Government of Pakistan acquired this historic building and protected it under Ancient Monuments Preservation Act and the Pakistan Public Works Department (PWD) was assigned the work of its renovation and conservation. The birthplace museum was formally inaugurated by the then governor-general of Pakistan on August 14, 1953. Now the museum consists of a three-storey building: the ground floor has a library and a reading hall, the first and second floors have museum galleries, and the third floor has a custodian’s office.
The two-storey building belongs to the colonial period, standing solemnly on a street known as Chagla Street (now Barkati Street). It was built with stone masonry in lime and jute mortar to suit the volatile weather of Karachi. Jinnah's parents - Jinnah Bhai Ponja and Sakina Bano (Mithi Bai) - moved to Karachi after 1874 from their ancestral village Paneli (now in Gujrat, India) to Karachi and acquired a two-room apartment in this building. Jinnah spent 16 years of his life at Wazir Mansion before leaving to pursue higher studies. After the birth of Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah, the house was sold to someone else by the owner.
In 1953, the Government of Pakistan acquired this historic building and protected it under Ancient Monuments Preservation Act and the Pakistan Public Works Department (PWD) was assigned the work of its renovation and conservation. The birthplace museum was formally inaugurated by the then governor-general of Pakistan on August 14, 1953. Now the museum consists of a three-storey building: the ground floor has a library and a reading hall, the first and second floors have museum galleries, and the third floor has a custodian’s office.
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