Koh-i-Noor: ‘LHC can’t hear plea against Queen’

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) Registrar’s Office on Friday objected to a petition demanding that the government bring back the Koh-i-Noor diamond from Britain. The office said the court had no jurisdiction to hear a case against the queen. Barrister Javed Iqbal Jaffrey had filed the petition accusing the United Kingdom of snatching the diamond from Duleep Singh, son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. He said the diamond was part of the crown when the queen was crowed in 1953. The lawyer said the queen had no right to the diamond that weighed 105 carats. He said the stone represented the cultural heritage of the Punjab. The queen and the British High Commission in Pakistan had been named among respondents in the petition.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th, 2015.