While the date September 11 will be remembered for other historical reasons, for Pakistanis the date has an altogether different meaning especially in terms of the course of events that followed in the country’s history.

For it was on this day in 1948 that Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founding father and the central figure in Pakistan’s history passed away.

Jinnah had been ill during the last few months of his life. Long suffering from tuberculosis and his relentless work for the country he created, did not help the Quaid’s health.

In his last days he had developed pneumonia and was flown from Balochistan (where the weather was to improve his health) to Karachi. He was taken to the port city on September 11, 1948 where he died later at night, only a year after Pakistan's birth.

The question of what would have happened for the future of Pakistan had Jinnah lived, has haunted Pakistanis ever since.

The following are Dawn newspaper clippings from the time following Jinnah’s death and what other men have said about the great man:

"I was attracted by his (Jinnah’s) personality, which has resulted in a book. If I was not drawn to his personality, I would not have written the book... He (not only) fought the British for an independent India but also fought resolutely and relentlessly for the interest of the Muslims of India. He (Jinnah) created something out of nothing and single-handedly stood against the might of the Congress and the British who didn’t really like him..."

— Indian politician Jaswant Singh who was expelled from BJP after he praised the founder of Pakistan in his book Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence

"Few individuals significantly alter the course of history. Fewer still modify the map of the world. Hardly anyone can be credited with creating a nation-state. Mohammad Ali Jinnah did all three."

— US historian, Stanley Wolpert

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"Although without Gandhi, Hindustan would still have gained independence and without Lenin and Mao, Russia and China would still have endured Communist revolution, without Jinnah there would have been no Pakistan in 1947."

— John Biggs-Davison

"It is said that when the Viceroy of India Lord Louis Mountbatten, learned of Jinnah’s illness he said, “Had they known that Jinnah was about to die, they’d have postponed India’s independence by a few months as he was inflexible on Pakistan”.

"Gandhi died by the hands of an assassin; Jinnah died by his devotion to Pakistan."

— Lord Pethick Lawrence, the former Secretary of State for India

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"Mr Jinnah was great as a lawyer, once great as a Congressman, great as a leader of Muslims, great as a world politician and diplomat, and greatest of all as a man of action. By Mr Jinnah’s passing away, the world has lost one of the greatest statesmen and Pakistan its life-giver, philosopher and guide."

— Surat Chandra Bose, Indian National Congress

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"Jinnah was the greatest politician of the century the world had produced."

— Arnold Toyanbee, British historian