Possession: Federal govt gets more time to reply to plea on Koh-i-Noor

LAHORE:

Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday granted time to the federal government to reply by April 1 to a petition seeking direction for the government to bring Koh-i-Noor diamond back from the UK.

The federal government had requested Justice Khalid Mahmood for some time to submit the reply.

Petitioner Advocate Javed Iqbal submitted that the diamond belonged to the territory that came under Pakistan following the partition of subcontinent. The stone was acquired by Britain in 1849.

The jewel, once the largest known diamond in the world, is set in a crown last worn by the late Queen Mother during her coronation and was displayed on top of her crown when her coffin lay in state after her death in 2002, he said.

Iqbal has named Queen Elizabeth II and the British High Commission in Islamabad as respondents in his petition which had previously been rejected by the LHC registrar in December on the grounds of flawed paperwork.

He said the Britain had “forcibly and under duress” stolen the diamond from Duleep Singh, the grandson of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh.

He requested the court to direct the government to bring back the diamond from the UK.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd, 2016.