Pervez Musharraf's land to be auctioned
Baghpat: A 12-bigha piece of land owned by former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is being auctioned in Kotona Bangar village in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat district. The land is now the property of the Union Home Ministry under the Enemy Property Act. This 'Enemy Property Act' was enacted in the year 1968 because till then the litigation of the properties of such big people who had left India was increasing continuously. All these cases pertained to claims over properties whose owners had left the country during the 1947, 1962 and 1965 Indo-China wars and the Indo-Pak wars respectively and settled in either China or Pakistan.
The biggest of these property disputes was about the properties of Raja-Mahmudabad in Uttar Pradesh. Raja himself settled in Pakistan in 1957 and also took citizenship there. But his wife and son Muhammad Amir Muhammad Khan remained in India and they also retained their Indian citizenship. But when the 'Enemy Property Act' was enacted in 1968, all that property was also declared enemy property. For years, the case went on in the Supreme Court and on October 21, 2005, Justice Ashok Bhan and Justice Altamas Kabir finally decided the dispute in favor of the royal family. On this, many such pending controversies started to open.
Finally, on January 7, 2016, the Constitution Amendment Ordinance came into force under the ordinance issued by the President of India and later it was formally signed in 2017. One such controversy arose over the properties of former Pakistan Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa. These properties were spread over Punjab. Among Pervez Musharraf's property claims was the dispute over his ancestral mansion in Delhi. The mansion is now owned by Jains, but many memories of the Parvez family are still attached to it.
On the other hand, the stories of Pakistan's Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah's Jinnah House in Mumbai have also started to resurface. Built in 1936 for just Rs 2 lakh, the Jinnah House is now worth Rs 2,600 crore and the PWD department of Maharashtra spends lakhs of rupees every year on the maintenance of this huge mansion. It has been lying vacant since 1962. When this building was built in Malabar Hill in the year 1936, this building was again called 'South Court'. There are pillars of walnut wood and marble. Attractions- Jinnah House is built on two and a half acres of land on Malabar Hill. Walnut wood paneling and beautiful pillars made of Italian marble are its attractions. It is a British-era Indo-Gothic style bungalow. It was also the residence of Britain's deputy high commissioner for several decades. It has been vacant since 1982.
BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had said, "I urge PM Modi that Jinnah House should be handed over to Jinnah's daughter Dina Wadia, who refused to settle in Pakistan." Dina had filed a petition in the Bombay High Court in 2007 to get the ownership of this property but it did not happen. Pakistan wants to buy this bungalow. He said that if India did not want to sell it, then he could lease it so that he could build a consular office here. India has rejected the request.
The building is spread over 2.5 acres. Which was designed by Claude Betley. Betley was a former president of the Indian Institute of Architects. Trained workers from Italy were specially brought to India to build the Jinnah House. The bungalow faces the sea. After independence, there was a British High Commission in Jinnah House till 1981. After this, it came under the Central PWD. It was handed over to the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) in 1997 for cultural activities. It was then decided to make it a sub-regional centre of SAARC. But due to controversies, it remained empty.
Jinnah House, which witnessed the partition, was the centre of the Muslim League's movement for the creation of Pakistan. This is where the leaders of the Muslim League used to meet and discuss. Sitting here, they used to strategize to convince the British government that Muslims needed a separate nation. They also used to sit here and plan to deal with the Congress.
On August 15, 1946, exactly a year before independence, Jinnah resumed discussions with Jawaharlal Nehru, a prominent Congress leader, for the creation of Pakistan. After independence, Jinnah went to Pakistan but expressed his desire to spend his last days in Jinnah House in Mumbai. Pandit Nehru did not want to declare Jinnah House as enemy property. Jinnah wrote a personal letter to Nehru requesting him to preserve his bungalow. He wanted that if at all it had to be given, it should be given to a European embassy because only he can value it. Nehru agreed to him and offered him a monthly rent of three thousand rupees. Unfortunately, Jinnah died before the deal was signed. Eventually, the Jinnah House was declared an enemy property in 1949 and the building was taken over by the government. It was allotted to the British High Commission, which continued to operate from there till 1981. After 1981, the British High Commission vacated it, after which Pakistan claimed it.
After the construction of Jinnah House, Mohammad Ali Jinnah wrote a will in the name of his unmarried sister Fatima Jinnah. He made Fatima Jinnah the sole heir to all his property, including this bungalow. After partition, Fatima Jinnah migrated to Pakistan. In 1962, Fatima obtained a succession letter from the Bombay High Court, but later after the Enemy Property Act, 1968, Jinnah House also came under the Enemy Property Act, 1968.
Jinnah's daughter Dina Wadia also expressed her right over it. She had approached the Bombay High Court in August 2007. She had filed a petition saying that since she was the sole legal heir of Jinnah, the possession of the house should be given to her. After his death, his son Nusli Wadia has been fighting the case. Dina was married to an Indian and settled in India. Dina Wadia had claimed that Hindu succession law applies to Jinnah's property because Jinnah was a Hindu two generations ago.
The Lokmanya Tilak Swarajya Land Trust had demanded that the Jinnah House be handed over to them. He had said that he wanted to portray Tilak's legacy through graffiti. According to the trust, Jinnah had great respect for Lokmanya Tilak. The Ministry of External Affairs had rejected Dina Wadia's claim. The Bombay High Court was then told that the 1939 will of Mohammad Ali Jinnah had fixed the succession of the property in the family. Fatima Jinnah had the right over Jinnah House, but Fatima Jinnah had gone to Pakistan, so Jinnah House came under the control of the Custodian of Enemy Property which is under the Government of India. That is, now Jinnah House is occupied by the Government of India.