List of heirs: Dir Hotel’s construction stayed over property dispute

Former nawab’s daughter says she did not get share, only her brothers did

PESHAWAR: A division bench of the Peshawar High Court has stayed the construction of Dir Hotel, situated in Upper Dir district, after daughters of former ruler of Dir state, Nawab Shahjehan Khan, challenged the provincial government’s order that ousted them from the list of his legal heirs.

Justice Qaiser Rasheed extended the stay order that was granted on the last hearing and sought the provincial government’s comments by the next hearing scheduled for September 27.

When the hearing commenced, petitioner Nawabzadi Badshah Sultana’s counsel Abdul Samad Khan said the property on which Dir Hotel is being constructed belonged to the former nawab of Dir.



Abdul Samad added it was sold at Rs530 million. He said the sale was illegal as the names of former ruler’s daughters have been removed from the family tree with the intention to deprive them of their legal share in their father’s property. As the last surviving daughter of the former ruler, the petitioner took the case to the high court against order of the secretary of Home and Tribal Affairs Department for depriving her and her sisters of their legal share in their father’s property.

Past proceedings

After the state was merged with Pakistan, a commission was constituted to determine the property that belonged to the nawab and to the government. After an enquiry on September 15, 1972, Land Dispute Inquiry Commission separated the property into two sets. One belonged to the government while the second set was declared private property.

Abdul Samad maintained the private property belonged to legal heirs of the nawab and should have been distributed among them.

“However, it was divided solely among the sons of the nawab while the daughters’ names were removed from the list of legal heirs of the former ruler, despite them being entitled to obtain legal share out of it.”

He said daughters of the nawab filed an application in a local court where it was dismissed and another application was filed at a sessions court. He added the application was decided in favour of the nawab’s sons, forcing his daughters to take the case to PHC against the ruling. A sub-ordinate court had rejected claims of daughters of the late nawab.

The ruling of the sub-ordinate court and home department secretary was set aside for reinvestigation and proper division of the property, the petitioner’s counsel said. However, he added, after completing the enquiry, the home department secretary divided the property among the nawab’s sons and deprived his daughters.

At the previous hearing, Justice Qalandar Ali Khan had said the PHC, after setting aside the subordinate court’s judgment, should have returned the case to the same court.

While replying in the affirmative, the petitioner’s counsel had said the PHC referred the case to the provincial government for relief, but the daughters were deprived of their share.

ANF put on notice

The same bench also issued notice to Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) for not complying with court order to de-freeze the petitioner’s bank accounts after completing his sentence.

Petitioner Abdul Wali Khan’s counsel Mohib Jan Salarzai told the bench Abdul Wali was arrested in a narcotics smuggling case in 2013 and was jailed.

He added after the completion of the trial, the court declared he was released but his bank accounts had yet to be reopened. 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 27^th, 2016.