BAHAWALPUR, April 25: The auction of left-over articles, including a Rolls Royce of the late Bahawalpur Nawab, at the Sadiq Garh Palace has been postponed till May 9. The auction among the Nawab's legal heirs was to be held on Sunday.

The decision was taken at a meeting held at Sadiq Garh Palace in Dera Nawab Sahib by the distribution/auction sub-committee headed by Abdul Ghafoor Bhatti, a former Bahawalpur EDO (Revenue). The other committee members are Zahid Siddiqui of States and Frontier Region (SAFRON) of the federal Kashmir and State Affairs Ministry and Bahawalpur ASP Maqbul Ahmed.

The committee decided that articles, including furniture, sofa sets, frames of mirrors and books, other than the cars owned by late Nawab Sir Sadiq Muhammad Khan Abbasi V, would be divided into 23 lots in accordance with the number of legal heirs.

Mr Bhatti said even the books would be divided into 23 lots and each of the heir would be asked to pick up the lot of his choice. It may be mentioned that no legal heir was ready to surrender his share of books and donate these to the Bahawalpur Central Library or the Library of Islamic University, Bahawalpur. However, the cars including Rolls Royce and Jaguar would be auctioned among the family members on May 9.

Earlier, it was learnt that the committee had held a meeting with the legal heirs at the Sadiq Garh Palace. Prince Saeedul Rashid Abbasi submitted an application containing his objections over Sunday's auction and demanded the postponement of the auction while Nawab Salahuddin Abbasi and Sahibzada Qamaruz Zaman Abbasi opposed to his objections.

However, after hearing both the sides, the committee fixed a mutually decided date of auction for cars on May 9. Mr Zahid Siddiqui made it clear to the heirs that May 9 would be the final auction date and the cars would be treated as state property if they did not turn up.

A committee of six legal heirs was also formed to divide furniture and other articles into 23 lots to facilitate the official sub-committee and also finalize the auction arrangements. Committee members of heirs are: former MNA Nawab Salahuddin Abbasi, former minister Saeedul Rashid Abbasi, former MNA Sahibzada Farooq Anwar Abbasi, former PA deputy speaker Sahibzada Usman Abbasi, Sahibzada Umar Daud Abbasi and Azizur Rashid Abbasi.