BAHAWALPUR, Feb 10: The historic Sadiqgarh palace in Dera Nawab, the residence of the late amir, Sir Sadiq Mohammad Khan Abbasi, of defunct Bahawalpur state, will be de-sealed on Feb 16, after 35 years for the auction of valuable antiques worth millions.

The auction formula is also rare as the bidders are not the general public, but 23 legal heirs of the Nawab and their descendants (whose number is 70) "who do not like to see the rare antiques of their elder going to other than the Nawabs". The money raised through the auction will go to a federal government pool for its onward and equal distribution among the bidders.

A decision to this effect was taken here on Tuesday by the federal government's implementation committee headed by Justice Abdul Qadeer Chaudhry (retired) at its siting at the local circuit house.

The auction formula was announced by the committee after hearing the heirs and the families at the circuit house. In its Tuesday meeting, the implementation committee constituted a sub-committee headed by Abdul Ghafoor Bhatti, EDO (revenue), to conduct the auction of the antiques on Feb 16, at Sadiqgarh palace, Dera Nawab Sahib (also known as Ahmadpur East), about 40km from here.

Mr Bhatti told Dawn that the auction would be in the light of an inventory finalized at the time of the sealing of the palace in 1969 following a property dispute among the legal heirs of the Nawab.

He said among the antiques were Nawab's cars, library containing precious books and scores of different articles preserved in his museum. He said the auction money would be deposited with the 'pool money' of the entire property, which would be distributed among the heirs.

He said no biding price would be fixed for any antique item. Nawab Sadiq had left behind 10 sons, as many daughters and three wives.