Flashmans Hotel, Quaid-e-Azam’s residence in Rawalpindi, is in danger

This is the incident of July 1944. Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah reaches Rawalpindi on his return from his visit to Kashmir. They are staying at Fleischmans Hotel Rawalpindi.

Ms. Fatima Jinnah is with him. Quaid-e-Azam is sitting leaning on a chair in the living room. Members of the Pakistan Muslim League Majlis-e-Amaila are waiting outside the room. In such a situation, two students of Gordon College Rawalpindi Syed Ahmed Masood and Muhammad Ashraf also reach there.

Mohammad Ashraf has a camera. Both students stand at the door. Ms. Fatima Jinnah comes out and asks the students the purpose of coming. He says that he wants to meet Quaid-i-Azam.

Fatima Jinnah goes inside and then the Quaid-e-Azam calls the students inside. Some talk and then come out onto the lawn to take pictures with the students.

This historical incident is recorded in Manzoorul Haq Siddiqui’s book ‘Quaid-e-Azam and Rawalpindi’.

The historic Fleischmans Hotel where Quaid-e-Azam used to stay has been locked since June 30, 2020.

The future of Fleischmann’s Hotel

No one knows what the future holds for this hotel, which has a history of 150 years in Rawalpindi. Will this precious and historical heritage be preserved by keeping it as a hotel or will it be demolished and a big hotel or plaza built here?

In this regard, when Ashfaq Ahmed, General Manager of Fleishmans Hotel was contacted, he replied that the tourism sector has been transferred to the provinces in the eighteenth amendment, but there is a dispute over the ownership of Fleishmans Hotel. The Military Status Office declares it as its property, so it is not being given to Punjab. However, to determine its future, a company, International Consulting Associates, has been hired and has prepared its report, which will be presented in the upcoming board meeting of Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC).

Sardar Javed Khan, President of Flashmen’s Hotel Employees Union, says that around 400 employees of Bekhunbis Qalam Hotel were dismissed on July 2 last year on the pretext of Corona.

There were employees who had been employed for 30 to 40 years. The management had filed a petition in the labor court on the pretext of loss, that we want to close the hotel, but the employees were fired before the decision came.

The government has created another board on top of the PTDC board, National Tourism Coordination Board (NTCB) headed by Zulfi Bukhari, who has since resigned.

The Cantonment Board has converted the empty space of the hotel into a parking lot. What will be the future of the hotel and where will the employees go? About this, Javed Khan said that ‘we have approached the higher courts, but the government has not given any satisfactory answer so far.’

He rejected the impression that the hotel was in loss. He said that the rent of the marquee and billboards was around two and a half crore rupees per annum, despite this, if the hotel was in loss, the management was responsible and not the employees.

When was Fleischmans Hotel Rawalpindi built?

No historical document is available in this regard. However, due to the Anglo-Afghan wars, it was built by the British Army as their barracks in 1849 when India’s largest cantonment was being laid at Rawalpindi.

Later, considering the needs of a hotel here, its status was changed and it was bought by an Englishman named Thomas Charles Fleischmann.

A book about him ‘Rawalpindi The Raj Years’ by Ali Khan on page 75 mentions that he was an assistant in a general merchant store at Anbala before coming to Rawalpindi. When he came here, he opened a grocer’s shop on Cunning Road, where Fleishman’s Hotel is today, where apart from liquor, Kashmiri antiques were also sold.

Tourists who could not visit Srinagar used to buy Kashmiri antiques from Charles Flesh Minis.

With the blessing of the British military administration, he bought more than nine acres of land between King Road and Murree Road, where the military barracks were, and turned it into a hotel. Its address used to be 22 Mall Road and the place was central even then.

There was a cricket ground on this side of Mall Road. On the other side Murree Road, Church of Scotland and in front Victoria Barracks which today is called the General Headquarters of Pakistan Army.

A huge statue of the Queen of Great Britain stood on Mall Road which was damaged during partition and was transferred to the British High Commission.

Before partition, there used to be three major hotels in North India and today’s Pakistan. Flatties in Lahore, Fleishmans in Rawalpindi and Danes Hotel in Peshawar, but also Danes Hotel Peshawar was built by Thomas Charles Fleishmans, a deputy Danes.

Rawalpindi, being the military headquarters of the Northern Command, was frequented by British military officers and military contractors.

British and European tourists who went to Srinagar also stayed in Rawalpindi, so Fleischmann’s hotel did well and he started to be counted among the elite. Flashman also had tea plantations in the Kerala port of Kashi, spending winters in Kashi and summers in Murree.

In 1914 he received a title from the British government and in 1918 he was given the rank of honorary captain in the Indian Army.

After World War I, Fleischmann’s financial situation worsened as the law and order situation in Punjab deteriorated after the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy. Edward Dyer, father of General Reginald Dyer, who ordered the firing at Jallianwala Bagh, was the owner of Murree Brewery Company. He also belonged to Rawalpindi, so the sensitivity of Rawalpindi increased.

After which Fleischmann sold his hotel in 1919 to a company called Associated Hotels of India, owned by Mohan Singh Oberoi who was a native of Chakwal.

His five-star hotel was targeted in the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Tomas Charles Fleischmann moved back to Britain where he bought a chain of hotels. He died in 1929 at the age of 71.

Even after the demerger, Fleischmans continued to operate under the Associated Hotels of India till 1961. It was later merged into a company called Associated Hotels of Pakistan, but its majority shares were held by the Oberoi family.

Apart from Fleishmans, Flaties Lahore, Dans Hotel Peshawar and Cecil Hotel Murree were also owned by the same company. However, after the Indo-Pak War of 1965, all these hotels were confiscated as enemy property.

On September 28, 1976, these four hotels, including Fleishman’s, were handed over to PTDC. The remaining three hotels were privatized in 1999, but the status of Fleischmann’s Hotel remained.

When Islamabad was being built, President Ayub’s cabinet meetings were also held here. All the ministers including Bhutto used to stay here. The head office of PTDC was also established here. Built in the barracks style, the hotel has two large halls, 73 rooms and a swimming pool.

The historic hotel, where many great personalities including Quaid-e-Azam stayed, is closed today, but through its windows one can still glimpse into the glorious past, where Quaid-e-Azam and Ms. Fatima Jinnah are standing and with the new generation of Pakistan, hence the pictures. They are making so that the chain of history and civilization cannot be broken.

The current government of Pakistan must keep this scenario in front whenever it decides the future of this hotel.