Noorjehan - Her Last moments and Funeral

 By -  Sunny Singh

Noorjehan’s last days were very tough. She had a bad heart, bad kidneys and a number of related ailments.She was on Dialysis. She lived with her daughter Henna and her husband Hassan Akhtar in Karachi.

FINAL UNION : With daughter and Son-In-Law during illness in Karachi Hospital

Her health deteriorated drastically on the morning of 23 December 2000. She was taken to a private hospital. Leaving her house for the last time, Noorjehan whispered, “ I am leaving now,where are the children”.

Noorjehan With her Daughter Heena

 

Last Kiss to Daughter ZILE HUMA

               

She was consoled that they were on their way. ’Don’t console me, call them quickly,” she said in her extreme weak voice for the last time. These were her last words. She had a massive cardiac arrest and died on her way to hospital.

Noorjehan With her Doctor at AGHA KHAN HOSPITAL in KARACHI

But the family still took her to the hospital,where, the doctors pronounced her death at 2:45 pm. She had become extremely weak and weighed only 60 pounds. The prolonged illness had distorted her facial features to a great extent. She had a small funeral of arround forty people at night. Her daughters moved out of the house, crying out loudly, as the body was being taken out of the house after bath – for prayers and burial. Teams of photographers and television cameremen had arrived but the family did not let them photograph her. The burial had to wait outside the Clifton Gizri Graveyard for the remaining members of her family who arrived from lahore. Her two sons , Akbar and Asghar upon their arrival drove straight to the graveyard. They also cried bitterly.

ZILE HUMA crying for her Mother

Akbar and Asghar, daughter Huma and Shaukat Rizvi’s second wife Yasmeen expressed a desire to take the body to Lahore, but Eijaz Durrani and his daughter Henna refused, as the body had begun to decompose ( It is always hot in Karachi), and also, it was SHAB -E- QADAR ( 27^th of Ramzaan) that all muslims believe to be the holiest day in Islam’s calendar.

Funeral on 23rd December 2000 in Karachi

“She is destined to go to heaven and should, therefore , be buried before the night was out,” said Henna. Akbar and Asghar lowered their mother's body into grave. The funeral prayers wre finally offered at Sultan Masjid in Karachi , which was only 50 yards from the house. Only ladies of the house and two sons were allowed inside the Fizri Graveyard.

Soon her news of her death spread across the world. The national media channel PTV interrupted all its regular transmissions to announce the news of her sad demise.

Messages of condolence started coming in. President Mohammad Rafiq Tarar in his message expressed profound grief and sorrow. The President said, “Noorjehan’s death brings to end an era of singing.” Chief Executive General Parvez Musharraf in his condolence message said, “ The vaccume created by the death of MALLIKA – E –TARANNUM in the field of music will never be filled. She rose to the heights of music and dominated the stage for decades. Her songs would always remain in the hearts of the people.”