THE commercial use of the Flagstaff House as reported by Dawn (Nov 18) is indeed highly regrettable.

The agreement to sell Flagstaff House to the Pakistan government, ministry of culture and tourism, was executed by me in my capacity as administrator of the estate of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah pursuant to an order of the chief justice of the Sindh High Court in Karachi on Feb 5, 1984.

It clearly prescribes that the said property would be used for setting up a museum-cum-library commensurate with the name of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and with the intention to preserve his memories.

It was clearly specified that the said property will not be utilised for any commercial purpose, but will be preserved in the national interest.

The agreement to sell Flagstaff House incorporates the order of the chief justice. The conveyance deed executed by the administrator also expressly contains the above-mentioned terms. It was on the aforesaid basis that the said property was sold by the administrators to the government.

The use of Flagstaff House for any commercial purpose is clearly in violation of the order of the SHC chief justice, the agreement to sell and the conveyance deed executed by the administrators in favour of the Pakistan government. This may well constitute contempt of the high court.

In future, it must be ensured by the government that there is no commercial use whatsoever of any kind or nature of Flagstaff House.

It is difficult to believe that the government does not have sufficient funds to meet the costs of maintenance and upkeep of Flagstaff House as the offer given by the Jinnah Society to the government was turned down in the past. It included an offer to set up an audio-visual centre at Flagstaff House. This was also declined by the government.

Liaquat H. Merchant
Karachi

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2015