Karachi - Dina Wadia, the only daughter of father of the nation Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, passed away at her home in New York on Thursday, a spokesperson of Wadia Group said. She was 98.

Dina, who had married Bombay-based Parsi businessman Neville Wadia over her father’s objection and stayed back in India after Partition, is survived by her daughter Diana N Wadia, son Nusli N Wadia, her grandsons Ness and Jeh Wadia and two great grandchildren Jah and Ella Wadia., the spokesperson said in a statement issued in Indian city of Mumbai.

She was the only child of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and his second wife Rattanbai Petit who was also known as Maryam Jinnah after marriage. She was a pampered child and enjoyed a deep attachment with her father.

Dina Wadia was born in London on August 15, 1919. Her paternal grandparents were from Gujarat, who moved to Karachi for business in the mid-1870s, where her father, Quaid-i-Azam, was born.

Dina Wadia last visited Pakistan in 2004 during a landmark cricket series between Pakistan and India on the invitation of former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf. She considered cricket diplomacy to be an enthralling dimension. Wadia had never visited Pakistan since her father’s funeral in September 1948.

“This has been very sad and wonderful for me. May his dream for Pakistan come true,” wrote Dina Wadia in the visitor’s book, during her visit at the mausoleum of Quaid-i-Azam. She had also visited the mausoleum of Madar-i-Millat Fatima Jinnah to pay respects to her aunt.

In 2007, Dina Wadia filed a writ petition before the Mumbai High Court, claiming that Jinnah House could not be classified as “evacuee property”, as her father had died without leaving behind a will and demanded that the house be handed over to her.

Quaid had raised Dina alone after his separation from Rattanbai and her subsequent demise. He loved her deeply, but their relationship had become strained after Dina fell in love with and married an Indian Parsi, 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’s mother died in 1929 of cancer. The daughter-father relationship never deepened after Dina’s marriage. It is worth mentioning that Quaid-i-Azam never issued any legal notice to disown her daughter.

Quaid’s only daughter Dina dies in New York