Battle royal in court for Nawab of Dir’s property

Family says he had property in Upper Dir, Lower Dir when region was acceded in 1969

PESHAWAR:

The revenue departments of Upper Dir and Lower Dir districts produced demarcation reports of property owned by the then nawab of Dir before a division bench of Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday.

The bench comprising PHC Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Younis Taheem heard a writ petition filed by granddaughters of the former ruler of Dir through their counsels, Sher Muhammad Khan, Ziaur Rahman Tajik and Jehanzeb Khan. Mohammad Shah Khosru Khan was the nawab of Dir at the time it was acceded to Pakistan in 1969. Zohra Falak was identified as one of the petitioners.



Arguing before the bench, the petitioners’ counsels said, “At the time Dir was merged with Pakistan, the government of Pakistan had issued a notification demarcating property in Dir owned by the state and that owned by the nawab.”

However, at present, no one knows about the demarcation or where each property begins and ends, Jehanzeb told the bench.  He said at the last hearing, PHC had directed the revenue departments of both districts [Lower and Upper] to demarcate property owned by the nawab and inform the court of its location.

Content of report

The counsels argued the report produced by Upper Dir deputy commissioner (DC) was incomplete as he declared there was no property owned by the nawab there. They said according to the report submitted by Lower Dir DC, property belonging to the nawab was demarcated at different places.



There were records that the property existed, but the revenue department claimed the nawab sold it all, even though there was no documentation of any such sales, argued Sher Muhammad.

Disagreements

Lower Dir revenue assistant commissioner appeared before the court and said the court order was implemented and the report was prepared and produced in light of the records available with the department.

The petitioners’ lawyers argued court orders were not implemented and no investigation was truly conducted to find out where the property owned by the nawab was located.

The bench after hearing the arguments adjourned the case till the next hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 26^th, 2016.