BAHAWALPUR, Feb 13: The widow of late Prince Haroonur Rashid Abbasi, Pakistan's former ambassador in Tunis, has described the proposed auction of the valuables at the Sadiqgarh Palace by the government's implementation committee on Feb 16 as illegal.

Speaking at a press conference here on Friday, she protested that the committee, headed by Justice Abdul Shakoor Salam (retired), failed to uphold the terms of reference of the Supreme Court notified in the government gazette on March 9, 2002.

Referring to documents, she said, the apex court's terms of reference included the assessment and evaluation of the whole property of the late Nawab and its distribution among the 23 legal heirs according to the Shariat law.

She maintained that without the evaluation of the properties worth billions, auction of the so-called valuables, most of which were reportedly missing from the Sadiqgarh palace, was a mockery of justice.

A legal heir to the property of the late Bahawalpur Nawab, she claimed that during the visit of Justice Salam as the head of a committee here in April 2002, each of the legal heirs had given him a property package to be declared by the Salam committee, but even after two years the property was not distributed and the new issue of the auction of valuables had been raised without the consent of the legal heirs.

She said there were several incidents of robbery at the palace in the past and his late father-in-law's (late Nawab) two railway saloons were allegedly dynamited at Dera Nawab Sahib railway station.

Despite 37 years, she said, the lists of the landed urban and rural properties of Nawab Sadiq were not prepared by the government, which was the custodian of the palace.

The widow complained that she had not been paid her share from the pool money being collected from the Nawab's property by the government in the last 37 years, except Rs1.3 million from the interim price of Rs110 million of the Noor Mahal, Bahawalpur.

She demanded Safron (States and Frontier Region) of the federal government's Kashmir and states affairs ministry that they it should pay her share from the pool money and distribute property in accordance with the Shariat law.

She said her husband (the late prince) died in an accident near Dera Nawab Sahib in 1972 after which his property was grabbed by the members of his rival family. She said now she had nothing, except a residence at the Dera Nawab Sahib, urging the government to give her due rights and share from the late Nawab's property and the pool money under the control of Safron.

NAWAB'S PROPERTY: It is learnt that seven Rolls Royce, two Chevrolet and one Cadillac (seven-seater) were among over 50 vehicles used by Nawab Sadiq during his lifetime. Besides, there were thousands of rifles and other arms at the Sadiqgarh palace and costly articles, which the owner purchased from time to time during his foreign trips.