KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday ordered constitution of a commission to conduct an investigation and locate precious assets and belongings left by father of the nation Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and his sister Fatima Jinnah.

A single-judge bench of the SHC headed by Justice Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan noted that the properties as detailed in the around 50-year-old suit, including cars, shares, jewellery and bank balances, were never discovered while many other items appeared in earlier reports of the nazirs were also missing in the latest inventory prepared by an official assignee in the light of its last order.

The bench said that one-man commission to be headed by retired Justice Faheem Ahmed Siddiqui will probe into the disappearance of several valued belongings and assets of Quaid-i-Azam and Fatima Jinnah, adding that the commission would be empowered to seek help of any government official and to call record from any institution in the regard.

When the matter came up for hearing on Tuesday, an assistant advocate general (AAG) contended that the Oct 13 order of bench about taking over the possession of Qasr-e-Fatima, commonly known as Mohatta Palace, by the official assignee and setting up of a medical college on the premises had been suspended by a two-judge division bench on Nov 8 on an intra-court appeal of the provincial government.

The AAG sought adjournment on the grounds that the advocate general of Sindh would himself argue the matter.

However, the counsel for the plaintiff pointed out that only the official assignee was restrained from taking possession of Mohatta Palace and rest of the order was still in field.

The lawyer for Mohatta Palace Gallery Trust, which is currently maintaining the heritage property, filed an application to become intervener in the suit and the bench issued notices on the application to the plaintiff as well as the defendants for Dec 8.

In its Oct 13 order, the bench had resolved that it would pursue recovery of all the listed assets left by the father of nation and his sister and use all force available with it to bring these assets to surface.

The court further directed the official assignee to take over possession of the heritage property and to make a list of all inventory available in the building as well as ordered setting up a medical college with the consent of all parties.

However, a division bench of the SHC had restrained the official assignee from taking over the possession of Qasr-e-Fatima till Nov 18 as the provincial government filed an intra-court appeal against the Oct 13 order of the single bench.

Initially, the suit was filed by Hussain Waliji, a relative of Fatima Jinnah, about the administration of her movable and immovable properties, including Qasr-e-Fatima, in 1971 and after the death of the original plaintiff his son Amir Ali was impleaded as plaintiff, but he had also passed away during the pendency of this suit and his son Nazish Amir Ali had become the part of proceedings.

The litigation was initiated after the award of succession certificate of such properties to Shireen Jinnah, the only surviving sister of Fatima Jinnah after her death on July 10, 1967. The Shireen Jinnah Charitable Trust was impleaded as one of the defendants in the lawsuit.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2021