KARACHI, May 14: A day before the soyem of late Begum Abida Sultaan of Bhopal, who died here on Saturday, inmates of Bhopal House in Clifton were evicted by force at the behest of the Intelligence Bureau.
“I am deeply aggrieved and let down by the government of Pakistan for such a treatment meted out to the family which sacrificed everything for the sake of Pakistan and to pursue the ideals of Quaid-i-Azam,” said a grief-stricken and shocked former Foreign Secretary Shaharyar M. Khan, the only son of the late Begum Abida Sultaan.
Talking to newsmen at the residence of Begum Salma Ahmed, Mr Khan said while he was preparing for the Qul of his mother in Malir, a strong force of police arrived at Bhopal House in Clifton and asked the inmates, including his wife and others, to leave.
This situation continued until 4pm when a strong police force under a DIG came to the scene, following which they had no option but to leave, to save themselves from the humiliation.
The house was the property of Nawab Hamidullah Khan of Bhopal where the IB had set up its office in the annexe. Mr Khan showed various documents to disprove the claims of the intelligence agency. There had been attempts in the past also to dislodge the family.
An urgent contempt application would be moved in the Sindh High Court on Wednesday, he said.
The former foreign secretary said he was shocked that the IB officials took such an action in complete disregard of the fact that the matter was in the court. It was against the civilized norms, he said. He said the matter was fixed for May 25 in the Sindh High Court.
The Bhopal House, he said, was the property of his grandfather Nawab Hamidullah Khan, ruler of the second most important Muslim princely state in India after Hyderabad.
He showed the sale deed and mutation of the property in favour of the late Nawab. Since 1993 it was in the name of the late Begum Abida Sultaan.
Shaharyar Khan appeared deeply grieved when, he said, while his mother was in coma, she was sent eviction notice by the government under special powers assumed under an ordinance. This was despite the status quo order of the high court. On Saturday, he said the PWD was informed that Begum Abida Sultaan had died.
Deploring the action of the IB officials, he said: “I am deeply shocked that such a humiliating treatment will be meted out to my family while I was preparing for the Qul of my late mother who had sacrificed everything for the sake of Pakistan and for the ideals of Quaid-i-Azam. It seems that we are being punished for our commitment.”
“This is the reward of the central government to my mother,” said Mr Khan, condemning the high handedness of the Intelligence Bureau.
The former foreign secretary who had pleaded Pakistan’s case on Kashmir many a time, said: “Who is going to listen to our pleading when we treat our own people in such a way.”
He regretted that his calls to Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider, President Musharraf’s principal secretary Tariq Aziz, and the minister for works were to no avail. He nevertheless said the minister for works had told him that the action had not been ordered by him.
Mr Khan said that in order to settle the question of title of the property, he had also proposed to Brig Talat of the IB to put the property under the control of the court and had even agreed to arbitration.
He said that to him honour of his mother and the family was more important than the acquisition of the property.
Neither his late mother nor he himself had planned to live in that house and had actually planned to either open a school there or hand it over to Edhi Centre, Mr Khan said.