RAWALPINDI: The Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) on Thursday sealed Lal Haveli – the political office and public secretariat of former interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed – after the board chairman cancelled the registry of the building.

Lal Haveli is an old building in Bohar Bazaar. The Haveli was built over a hundred years ago by Dhan Raj Sehgal for Budhan Bai, a Muslim ‘dancing girl’ from Sialkot. However, it was converted into a political hub in 1980 after Sheikh Rashid Ahmed entered parliamentary politics.

A team of ETPB led by Deputy Administrator Asif Khan accompanied by the FIA, police and local administration sealed Lal Haveli. Asif Khan told Dawn that the total area of Lal Haveli was more than 16 marla and that Sheikh Rashid Ahmed owned only a five-marla portion on the upper floor of the building. He said that the ETPB chairman decided to declare the entire property previously named ‘Saray Sehgalan’ as a trust property.

“The order was issued on a reference filed by the department for the declaration of D-156, D-157 and D-158 as evacuee trust properties [under the Evacuee Trust Properties (Management and Disposal) Act, 1975],” he said. He added an appeal could be filed against the decision of the ETPB chairman with a relevant federal secretary and the high court.

Sheikh Rashid’s kin moves LHC against board’s decision to seal building

The row over the property’s ownership surfaced last year when the ETPB claimed that the ownership documents of one of Lal Haveli’s seven units were ‘fake’. He said that the total area of Lal Haveli was more than 16 marla and Sheikh Rashid merely owned five marla in the upper portion. He said that seven units adjacent to Lal Haveli were on lease to seven different tenants but Sheikh Rashid Ahmed used this area as part of his Lal Haveli.

He questioned how was it possible that the first floor was owned by Mr Rashid but the ground floor was declared as an evacuee trust property. “The whole building is property of ETPB under Evacuee Trust Properties (Management and Disposal) Act, 1975,” he said.

Asif Khan said that Lal Haveli was ‘Saray Seghalan’, with municipal records from 1900 establishing that ‘Saray’ was an evacuee trust property. “The record of Saray still exists and is prevailing for the last 122 years,” he clarified, quoting the chairman’s order.

He said that the first floor was named D-158 and beneath it, there were many tenement premises concerning which the tenants were paying rent to the ETPB board, so no registry against evacuee trust property could legally be made, and the ground reality was that there was no existence of other properties that were alleged as D-156 and D-157.

Another plea against ETPB

Following the ETPB action, Sheikh Sadique filed another plea with the LHC’s Rawalpindi bench, praying for Lal Haveli to be de-sealed and the ETPB to be restrained from dispossessing him of the property or interfering in his possession in any manner till the final disposal of the petition.

Sheikh Rashid Shafique, PTI former MNA and nephew of Sheikh Rashid, said Lal Haveli was registered with Sheikh Rashid Ahmed’s younger brother Sheikh Sadique. He said that the case was pending in the Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi Bench and the ETPB cancelled the registry without hearing their point of view and the decision of the high court on this case. He added the seven units of ETPB property were not part of Lal Haveli but adjacent to it. According to the PTI leader, the possession of the property was with the former minister since 1993.

Damdama Temple

Furthermore, Asif Khan said that two kanal and 14 marlas land on the main road belonged to a Hindu temple called Damdma on Hamilton Road, Raja Bazaar, where some Kashmiri families were allotted the upper storey for residence by the ETPB, but the ground floor was occupied by the land mafia. He said that the ETPB had tried in the past but the police had allegedly refused to help to vacate the land.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2023