12 February 2004	Thursday	20 Zilhaj 1424

BAHAWALPUR, Feb 11: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has directed distribution of all the movable and immovable properties in urban and rural areas of late Bahawalpur Nawab Sir Sadiq Muhammad Khan Abbasi among his legal heirs by Feb 26.

It is learnt on Wednesday that the prime minister had directed the commission, headed by Justice Abdul Salaam (retired), to distribute his entire property. The former justice has already completed the task and submitted his recommendations to the federal government.

Now the government has formed an implementation committee, led by a retired judge, Qadeeruddin Chaudhry, for the implementation of the commission's task. The committee will take up the task with the desealing of the Sadiq Garh palace on Feb 16.

The implementation committee at its sitting on Tuesday at the circuit house also decided in principle that the whole landed property of the late Nawab would be transferred jointly on the names of the 23 legal heirs whether alive or dead.

Later, the names of the descendants of the deceased legal heirs would be eligible for their share of the property of their grandfather and it would be transferred on their names.

It is further learnt that the entire property would be listed according to the record of the decrees and statements of the late Nawab, which he made before the commission constituted by the government at the time of merger of the defunct Bahawalpur state and the then West Pakistan.

The revenue department had yet to update records of the late Nawab's landed properties, EDO (revenue) Abdul Ghafoor Bhatti told this correspondent. Mr Bhatti, who is the chairman of the distribution sub-committee, said the department's field staff would conduct a survey to ascertain the extent of the Nawab's property.