About Founder
CHRONOLOGY OF LIFE ACHIEVEMENTS OF SIR ADAMJEE HAJEE DAWOOD
Sir Adamjee & M. Ali Jinnah
As Jinnah and colleagues assembled in to Karachi from the 7th of august 1947 for the ceremonial occasion of transfer of power to be held on 14th August 1947. There were rumors of the new nation already in financial crisis. Pursuants to the partition, the Liquid Assets of the nation were to be divided between India & Pakistan as per formula devised by Vicory Lord Mountbatten and the British Government. The Rs. 750 million promised & owed to Pakistan, only Rs. 200 million was accumulated in cash receipts, treasury bills & gold ingots at the treasury department, which was still under formation.
Having learnt the financial facts of the new nation, Jinnah was taken back and become furious. It is so believed that it was here, that Jinnah sent an “SOS” message to Sir Adamjee appraising him of the financial crisis. Soon after in Karachi, Sir Adamjee & son Wahid were approached by Hatim Alvi – a member of The Muslim League and Ghulam Muhammad the Finance Minister, seeking financial assistance. The relevant branch of the Imperial Bank of India in Karachi, where migrating refugees collected and enchased their receivables was running in to liquidity problems on lack of funding from Bombay. It wasn’t until November of that year, that the funding would arrive in a mysterious way. There was a credit entry at the Bombay treasury which was transferred from an account of the Imperial Bank of India believed to be belonging to Adamjee Dawood.
QUAID’S WORDS ON ADAMJEE
Quaid-e-azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in his Condolence message on the death of Sir Adamjee Hajee Dawood expressed:
A. “He was a loyal muslim and rendered great service in our struggle for Pakistan. His loss will be felt all the more now, when having achieved our goal we need his services for building Pakistan. His death will leave a Gap in Muslim Business Community which will be difficult to fill. His death is a National Loss to Pakistan.
B. During the partition movement: “If we had a dozen men like Sir Adamjee, Pakistan would have been achieved earlier”
Biography of Sir Adamjee
Daleara jamasji- Hirjikaka Yasmeen Qureshi Karachi, December 2004
Several people have contributed to the making of this biography. At the outset we would like to acknowledge the work of Habib Lakhani and Rafiq Dhorajvi whose biographies of Sir Adamjee in English and Gujarati respectively from the basis of this book.
Yahya Hashim Bawany and Sabiah Hassan undertook the research for this project. Mr Bawany was instrumental in procuring source documents including the correspondence with the Quaid-e-Azam and the minutes of the early meetings of the Memon Education and welfare Society (MEWS). The book would not have been complete without the help of Saleem Tabani, Administrator, Adamjee Foundation, who provided the photographs and documents that from the appendices and Adam Noor Honorary General Secretary of the Bombay chapter of MEWS who provided us with the latest information on the working of MEWS.
We would also like to think Adnan Ahmed and Hasina Adamjee, the granddaughter and great – grandson of Sir Adamjee, for conducting the research for the book at the British Newspaper Library at Colindale, London.
Ashraf Adamjee, a grandson of Sir Adamjee, contributed tremendously to the biography in terms of time and interest. The Chapter on Adamjee’s confrontation with the Swedish match king, Ivar Krueger has been contributed entirely by him, as have grealy benefited by his keen perception and eye for detail. We would also like to think Salman Tarik Kureshi and Zaheer Choudhry for editing the book. Their suggestions and changes have added style and substance to the text.