BAHAWALPUR, Feb 17: Protesting the disappearance of valuables and antiques worth millions of rupees from the Sadiqgarh palace in Dera Nawab Sahib which the government desealed on Monday, a majority of the Nawab's 23 legal heirs have demanded that the mode of auction for the remaining valuables should be changed.

One of the descendants, Sahibzada Qamaruz Zaman Abbasi, told Dawn that heirs of the Nawab would approach the chairman of the committee for distribution of Nawab's property, Justice Qadeer Chaudhry (Retired), with the request that an open auction be held for the late Nawab's expensive cars.

The cars, which included seven Rolls Royces, two Chevrolets and one Cadillac, would fetch high prices in the open market, he said, adding that the proceeds could then be distributed among the heirs.

According to him, if the auction of these cars was restricted to the 70 members of Nawab's family, a few of them would get the cars at low prices. This would be a loss for a majority of the heirs.

Meanwhile, EDO (Revenue) Abdul Ghafoor Bhatti, chairman of the sub-committee for auction of the remains of Sadiqgarh palace, told Dawn that a committee comprising six legal heirs had been constituted under Ahmedpur East Deputy District Officer (Revenue) Ghazi Amanullah Khan to finalize the inventory of articles of the palace within three days. A date would then be fixed for auction of articles within the Abbasi family, he added.

The committee includes Nawab Salahudin Abbasi, Prince Saeedul Rashid Abbasi, Sahibzada Usman Daud Abbasi, Sahibzada Farooq Anwar Abbasi, Azizur Rashid Abbasi and Mohsin Abbasi as its members. It will be assisted by Zahid Siddiqui and Shehbaz Ahmed of SAFRON.