It seems an irony, that as the nation celebrated its Independence Day yesterday when Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali dedicated a train to the Madar-e-Millat Fatima Jinnah, the controversy unleashed by none other than a senior politician and lawyer like Sharifuddin Pirzada refuses to die.

He shocked the nation earlier this month by saying Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah's trusted comrade and beloved younger sister, Fatima, was murdered on July 9, 1967 in Karachi when Pakistan's first military President General Ayub Khan ruled the country.

Pirzada thinks a servant murdered her, and that the Ayub government managed a cover up later.

Fatima's lawyer nephew Akbar Peerbhoy flew in from Mumbai at the time to investigate but came up against officials who insisted she had died of a heart attack, refused to exhume her body or do another autopsy.

Fatima reportedly returned late from a wedding, locked the house, kept the keys in the kitchen and retired for the night.

In the morning when she could not be awakened, the door was opened in the presence of the commissioner of Karachi and the inspector general of police.

Fatima, Pirzada said, was found to have been murdered, her bed was covered with blood.

In the months after Jinnah's death, Fatima had entered into some controversy by fighting an election against Gen. Ayub Khan. Fatima's radio addresss after the death of the Quaid's death had been cut off.

And the violent procession against her campaign in Karachi in 1964 when she was expected to sweep the port city was an indicator that all was not well.

Pirzada had said he would reveal the full story about the death on August 14 , on Independence Day in a year that has been dedicated to her memory.

But there was only silence yesterday leaving observers wondering whether the real story would ever be told.