Ex-Indian premier’s son donates six flags to Quaid-e-Azam House

Lal Bahadur Shastri’s son upset with state of Jinnah’s Karachi residence

KARACHI: Senior Indian politician Anil Kumar Shastri on Monday visited the Quaid-e-Azam House, near Flagstaff House, in Karachi and donated six Pakistani flags.

Shastri, who is the son of former Indian premier Lal Bahadur Shastri, arrived in Karachi on Saturday on what is his maiden tour of Pakistan. The senior Indian Congress leader had visited the Quaid’s mausoleum over the weekend before visiting the museum on Monday.



“I respect (Mohammad Ali) Jinnah sahib very much,” Shastri said as he inspected belongings of Pakistan’s founding father at the museum. “I looked [at] his photos and observed his personality through them”.

However, Shastri also had a few complaints.

“I was very much upset with the (state of the) façade of the building and area around it,” he told The Express Tribune. “It is a great place and should be maintained properly.”

“We waited there for a guide but there was only a security guard present,” said Shastri who was visiting the Quaid’s Karachi residence along with his wife and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid local leader Haleem Adil Sheikh.

Referring to his father’s residence in the Indian city of Varanasi, Shastri said it too had been converted into a museum and is maintained by the Indian government.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 24^th, 2015.