Indian ministry seizes unclaimed assets of 1947 Pakistan migrants
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NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Home Affairs has, fifty years after partition, seized the unclaimed contents of lockers and safe deposits that were sent to India in 1961. According to a report by the Economic Times, the owners of these valuables were people who had migrated from Pakistan to India in 1947.
The Indian home ministry released a notice on Feb 20, 2015 saying the reclaimed valuables are now the property of the Government of India and the central government is free to exercise discretion in the disposal of the valuables.
In 1950, Pakistan and India signed an agreement, the premise of which was to return locker contents to their owners whether they had migrated to India or Pakistan.
Read more: Pakistan, India vow to work together
As a result of the agreement, the valuables and personal items were sealed and transported to India in 1961 where they remained under the care of the Reserve Bank of India, New Delhi.
Two public notices were issued in 1979 and 1991 asking the owners of the goods to claim them. The State Bank of India and ANZ Grindlays Bank released more items to the ministry in 1990.
A consolidated inventory of the unclaimed items was completed in January this year by a committee of ministry officers, the RBI and the local executive magistrate.
The Central Government, in the notification, deemed it fair to declare the property as 'unclaimed' and seize it.
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On DawnNews
Comments (32) Closed
Mar 09, 2015 05:49pm
At this point India is late than Pakistan.
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Mar 09, 2015 05:58pm
@sharabi : That's correct.
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Mar 09, 2015 06:08pm
The word seize has such negative connotations as though it is some kind of theft. If no one has claimed anything in 67 years, it is fair to revert the money to the state
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Mar 09, 2015 06:12pm
Lets talk of Indian wealth of Nizam of Hyderabad stashed in Pakistan for ages. Also the proceeds of the settlement when India and Pakistan was partitioned is yet to be returned to India. When will these come back?
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Mar 09, 2015 06:12pm
So what did they find in those lockers , will be interesting to know.
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Mar 09, 2015 06:37pm
All of this should be in some museum. They belong to one significant event that influenced millions in S. Asia.
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Mar 09, 2015 06:56pm
Who will claim tthat..
Beaarer weere killed in brutal mascare...
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Mar 09, 2015 07:02pm
@Parmer Parosi :should be like this
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Mar 09, 2015 07:23pm
@Parmer Parosi I agree..there must be some rare and valuables artefacts which will present a view of the shared history of this land..
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Mar 09, 2015 07:29pm
@zak socks!
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Mar 09, 2015 07:54pm
@Be+ You did NOT read it right, migrants mentioned here are the ones who went to India. Yes if it was migrants who came to Pakistan, then you would be factually right. To Love and Peace
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Mar 09, 2015 07:59pm
keep them.
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Mar 09, 2015 08:07pm
Millions and millions of hard earned money was drained after Partition. My current neighbours ran from Karachi when their entire colony was fired by Pakistanis and they left their big houses, money, gold and everything that they had and catched the boat to India.
That was terrible moment. They grandchildren still know their address in Karachi where there properties were and where they live. They send several request to government of Pakistan to provide assistance to sell it, but Pakistan refused to accept that they were living there.
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Mar 09, 2015 08:24pm
Good decision by INDIA since it is almost 68 years those lockers are not opened. So the heirs will not be there by now...No loss to anybody.
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Mar 09, 2015 08:25pm
Since many of these items were unclaimed, it means the The Bank of India and the government did not perform due diligence to its full extent. Issuing public notices is well and good, only the banks and the Indian government should have contacted the owners or their relatives via a courier service. It's not rocket science to locate the whereabouts of these bank account holders, especially in this day and age of forensic technology.
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Mar 09, 2015 08:41pm
@zak: Shahid Afridi's birth certificate.
But seriously, I wonder why Dawn is making a big deal out of this. The valuables are mostly of Hindus who moved from Pakistan to India and were retrieved from lockers in Pakistan and given to India as per the 1950 accord with India also reciprocating the gesture. Some 15-20 years later, the Indian Supreme Court asked the government to seize the unclaimed assets, but the government still tried twice more and has only now seized them.
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Mar 09, 2015 08:47pm
Religion had devastated so many lives and still the end has yet to come.
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Mar 09, 2015 09:00pm
The owners were given sufficient time to claim their property. How long will Govt. pay the cost of maintaining these items? The assumption is that most of these lockers do not contain highly valuable items. Years back, Pakistan had already seized the unclaimed properties of migrants to India - no one asked these items to be sent to a museum then?
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Mar 09, 2015 09:11pm
I hope it was more valuable than the storage cost at the RBI.
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Mar 09, 2015 09:58pm
How about Indian government helping to migrate the persons and their descendants who first gave nearly 90% voteshare to the party that called for partition in 1946 general elections and chose to stay back when it was time to move to their promised land.
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Mar 09, 2015 10:23pm
@zak They found parts of Kashmir.
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Mar 09, 2015 10:26pm
Bangladesh government had also seizes all unclaimed assets of 1971 (West-)Pakistan migrants.
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Mar 09, 2015 10:26pm
@gary Islam is enlightenment and a guide through life's journey, with compassion, dignity, and honour. It has given more to humanity than anything else.
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Mar 09, 2015 10:27pm
Old pains of Partition. If a Muslim or Hindu refused to leave their respective lands, will that make him a lesser Hindu or Muslim??
Toba tek Singh by Saadat Hasan Manto.
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Mar 09, 2015 10:29pm
@Ismail Hyderabad was given independent status and had a observer seat at UN. India invaded and occupied it. So when will India remove themselves from Hyderabad and the Nizam take over his riasat. We can return his wealth to him. Btw India owes pakistan 2000 crore from time of independence and kashmir.
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Mar 09, 2015 10:30pm
@Ismail Really? Has Hyderabad's Nizamn migrated to Pakistan?
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Mar 09, 2015 10:58pm
@Zak Send a detailed breakup for 2k Crore to Indian govt. It will be returned in due course.
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Mar 09, 2015 11:00pm
These belongings have a history hidden in them. Indian government should not rubbish these items but sent them to Pakistan.
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Mar 09, 2015 11:02pm
Omg . They only isssued two notices in79 and 91.
Issued to whom ?? Noone knows. Is it too hard to track down owners.
They are valuables. And last notice issued was in 91.
They are usurping them as per endia's habit
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Mar 09, 2015 11:19pm
@Anwar yes yes why not.Zardari and Nawaz will make good use of them.
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Mar 10, 2015 02:20am
@Zak : Any documentary evidence of what you are saying about Hyderabad and the Nizam and the 2000 crore?
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Mar 10, 2015 03:16am
@Ismail. On the contrary, it was india who confiscated pakistan's wealth. Gandhi had to go to hunger strike to force indian govt to release pakistan's assets. India gave only a portion.
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