Bhagwandas and some other non-Muslim Pak luminaries

LAHORE: Former Acting Chief Justice of Pakistan, the late Rana Baghwan Das, will always stand tall among the most celebrated Pakistani non-Muslims, who have rendered meritorious services for the country in the fields of judiciary, defence, business, sports, medicine, healthcare, arts, education and public service etc. since 1947.
Here follows a brief list of some of the most publicly-acknowledged Pakistani non-Muslims:The Agra-born Justice Alvin “Bobby” Robert Cornelius (1903-1991) was Pakistan’s fourth Chief Justice from 1960 until 1968.
Christian by faith, Cornelius was commissioned into the Indian Civil Service and was appointed Assistant Commissioner in West Punjab. He had started his judicial career in the Lahore High Court in 1943, later joined the Justice Department.
In 1946, Cornelius was elevated to associate judge at the Lahore High Court, having initially served as the law secretary for Law Minister Jogendranath Mandal and Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan.
He was also the eighth Chairman of the Board of Control for Cricket in Pakistan (BCCP) from 1960 to 1963.Former Sindh High Court Chief Justice Dorab Framrose Patel (1924-1997) was a Parsi by faith. He was a founding member of the Asian Human Rights Commission and the co-founder of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. This former Supreme Court judge had refused to take oath under General Zia-ul-Haq’s PCO in 1981.
Jogindranath Mandal (1904-1968) was Pakistan’s first Law and Labour Minister between 1947 and 1950. He had the honour to have been appointed by Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah himself. He also had the unique honour of presiding over the first meeting of the first Constituent Assembly of Pakistan.
Following the partition of India on August 15, 1947, he had agreed to serve as Pakistan’s first Minister for Law and Labour - becoming the highest-ranking Hindu member of the government. He also became country’s second minister of Commonwealth and Kashmir Affairs. However later Jogindranath Mandal migrated to India after submitting his resignation to Liaquat Ali Khan, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Test cricketers Anil Dalpat Sonavaria, Danish Kaneria and Wallis Mathias Mathias (were also non-Muslims.When he had played for Pakistan, stylish batsman Muhammad Yousaf was actually a non-Muslim (Christian) called Yousaf Youhana.
Former Punjab Governor Salman Taseer’s mother Bilqis (Christobel) Taseer and her sister Alys George (Alys Faiz) were British Christians when they had landed in India.
Bilqis was married to Dr. M.D. Taseer.Alys George became Alys Faiz after tying a marital knot with renowned Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz. Her marriage to Faiz was solemnised by Sheikh Abdullah in Srinagar in 1941.
She was given a Muslim name, Kulsoom, when she embraced Islam at the time of her marriage, but she always remained Alys to her friends. She had joined the Pakistan Times in 1950 and looked after the women’s and children’s sections of the newspaper. She joined the newspaper’s regular staff in 1951 after the arrest of her husband in the so-called 1951 Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case. She also started the newspaper’s Reference Section.
Alys was the mother of Salima Hashmi (principal of the National College of Arts) and senior PTV producer Moneeza Hashmi.
(Reference: Daily Dawn edition of March 13, 2003)
Renowned fashion designer Deepak Perwani is also a Pakistani non-Muslim. His brother Naveen Perwani is a famous snooker player.
Deepak Perwani is an internationally-acclaimed fashion guru, who had added his name to the Guinness Book of Records by creating the world’s largest kurta that was 101 feet long, 59 feet 3 inches wide and weighed 800 kg.
Very well known Pakistani non-Muslim artists include actress Shabnam and her late husband Robin Ghosh (a brilliant music director in his own right), Salim Raza (singer), Sunny Benjamin John or S.B. John (musician and singer), Benjamin Sisters (singers), Irene Parveen (singer), A. Nayyar (singer), drama writer Dr. Dennis Issac and TV artist Anita Camphor (probably converted to Islam later) etc.
Remember, famous Na’at ‘Shah-e-Madina’ was first recorded in Salim Raza’s voice for the film ‘Noor Islam’.
Jagdish Chand Anand, better known as J.C. Anand (1922-1977), was a non-Muslim film producer and distributor, making films like Sassi, Heer and Alam Ara etc.
One of the largest distributors within the country, he had founded Eveready Pictures in Karachi.
Indian actress Juhi Chawla is his granddaughter, while his illustrious son Satish Anand continues to make films in Pakistan.
Satish was abducted for ransom in 2009. He was set free in Bannu by his captors after prolonged negotiations over payment of ransom.
Informed sources said the release of the film-maker was effected following the payment of a Rs16 million ransom.
(References:
Daily Dawn
The April 12, 2009 edition of a Karachi daily, website of Eveready Group of Companies and Mushtaq Gulzar’s book “Pakistan Cinema 1947 - 1997”)
The late three-time Lahore Stock Exchange Chairman Noshir F. Dastoor was a Parsi, and so was the late M.P. Bhandara, a leading businessman and parliamentarian of his time.
Brother of famous Pakistani novelist, Bapsi Sidhwa (known for authoring the “Ice Candy Man”), Minocher Bhandara owned the famous local beer brand “Murree Brewery” and had also set up the Croweaters Art Gallery.
Leading columnist Ardeshir Cowasjee was a Parsi as well, and so was Jamshed Nusserwanjee Mehta, the first Mayor of Karachi.
Byram D. Avari (owner of Avari Hotels) and Behram Dinshaw Avari (Asian Champion of Boating) are Parsis too.
The father of news photography in Pakistan F.E. Chaudhary, who had died on his 105th birthday in Lahore in March 2013, was Pakistan’s legendary lens-man, who had worked with the Pakistan Times for many years.
F.E. Chaudhry was the recipient of 27 awards, including the President’s Pride of Performance, Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Tamgha-i-Kidmat and the Tehrik-i-Pakistan Gold Medal etc.
He had three sons:
The ace Pakistan Air Force pilot, Cecil Chaudhary, was one of the heroes of the Indo-Pak 1965 war. He had also served as Principal of Lahore’s highly-acclaimed Saint anthony’s High School before his death.
Cecil’s brother Anthony Chaudhry was Pakistan Air Force Wing Commander and the Chief Flying Instructor at the Lahore Flying Club.
And Cyril Chaudhry had served as manager in the Bata Shoe Company Lahore.
Among the most renowned Ahmadi non-Muslims of Pakistan, Chaudhry Muhammad Zafrullah Khan (1893-1985) was the first Foreign Minister of Pakistan.
He had served as Pakistan’s Foreign Minister between 1947 and 1985.
He was a delegate in 1930, 1931, and 1932 to the Round Table Conferences on Indian reforms in London.
In 1931-1932, he was the President of the Muslim League.
Zafarullah had sat on the British Viceroy’s Executive Council as its Muslim member from 1935 to 1941. He had then led the Indian delegation to the League of Nations in 1939, and from 1941 to 1947, he had served as a judge of the Federal Court of India.
Another scion of the Ahmadiyya community, the 1979 Nobel Prize laureate Dr. Abdus Salam (1926-1996) was the first Pakistani to receive a Nobel Prize and also the second Muslim to win the prize, after Anwar El-Sadat of Egypt.
He was the first-ever Muslim to win the prize in science. He had served as Science Advisor to the Government of Pakistan from 1960 to 1974, a position from which he played a major and influential role in developing Pakistan’s science infrastructure.
Dr. Abdus Salam had played an integral role in Pakistan’s development of peaceful use of nuclear energy, and is known to have contributed to development of atomic bomb project of Pakistan in 1972.