MEERUT: If the descendants of Pakistan’s first prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan win this battle, half of Muzaffarnagar city in UP will be theirs, including the railway station, DM’s residence, a central school and a host of other landmarks.
It’s a fight that has gripped the imagination of this bustling western Ut-tar Pradesh town, Times of India reported Friday. The property dispute relates to the ownership of Rs 674 crore worth of real estate in Muzaf-farnagar, which allegedly belonged to Liaquat Ali and his kin. The dis-trict administration has dug up all old records to rubbish the claim.
According to the TOI report, it was in 2003 that four local residents, said to be distant relatives of Liaquat Ali, prepared a deed declaring themselves his descendants. They then quietly approached the UP Revenue Commission to get possession of 106 plots owned by the Khan family in the city, which roughly covered 50% of Muzaffarnagar.
When the Muzaffarnagar DM finally received a direction from the reve-nue commission two weeks ago to look into the matter, the acquisition was quickly labelled a “fraud”. An FIR was lodged on Thursday and a probe is on. An investigation to be headed by the ADM (finance) has also been set up.
Liaquat Ali had served as a member of the provincial legislative council from Muzaffarnagar between 1926 and 1940, when he was finally elected to the central legislative assembly.
According to his four “relatives”, Liaquat Ali’s family had huge proper-ties in the district and after his migration to Pakistan, his cousin Umar Daraz Ali got the possession of all of it. Subsequently, it was transferred to Daraz Ali’s son Ajaz Ali. The four claim to be Ajaz’s progeny.
Local tehsildar Rajnikant told TOI: “The four accused, Jamshed Ali, Khurshed Ali, Mumtaz Begum and Imtiaz Begum had made the deed documents on February 26, 2003. After waiting for a couple of years, the deed documents were sent to the revenue board in Lucknow and they demanded possession of the properties.” The board then asked the district administration about the actual position of these plots and the buildings erected on the claimed lands.
The district administration, in turn, checked its records and found that the land being claimed now housed a number of government buildings, including the DM’s bungalow, railway station, company garden, central school and other prominent structures.
Muzaffarnagar DM Nikhil Chandra Shukla said, “This is a case of total fraud. We have checked our revenue records and all the buildings are standing on government land.”
n a similar lawsuit, and perhaps the biggest property dispute in inde-pendent India, the Supreme Court in 2005 had established the owner-ship of Mohammed Amir Mohammed Khan, the erstwhile raja of Meh-moodabad, on properties worth at least Rs 3,000 crore in Sitapur and Lucknow which were under state government’s control.
On the plea of a group of tenants, the apex court constituted a commit-tee to ascertain the tenancy rights of those occupying the properties be-fore 1965, when the Enemy Property Act came into existence. The Act, passed after the 1965 India-Pakistan War, pertains to the property of any Indian who had migrated to Pakistan after Independence, and placed it in the government’s custody.
In July 2010, the President promulgated an ordinance which restrained courts from ordering the government to divest enemy properties from the custodian (government). Following this, the custodian (government) again took over Raja’s properties. Although the ordinance expired after six months before being converted into a bill, the properties were not divested back to the Mehmoodabad scion as there was no bill or any other mechanism to annul the effects of the ordinance.
In 2011, the ex-raja approached the Uttarakhand high court in Nainital for relief as a prominent hotel there was among the enemy properties. The case is still being heard. For now, though, the final word in cases related to the ownership of the property of those who migrated to Pakistan rests with the government and not courts.
Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now
Be Part of Quality Journalism |
Quality journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce and despite all the hardships we still do it. Our reporters and editors are working overtime in Kashmir and beyond to cover what you care about, break big stories, and expose injustices that can change lives. Today more people are reading Kashmir Observer than ever, but only a handful are paying while advertising revenues are falling fast. |
| ACT NOW |
| MONTHLY | Rs 100 |  |
| YEARLY | Rs 1000 | |
| LIFETIME | Rs 10000 | |
