KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has sought a report from the provincial culture department about the income generated from holding private functions at Qasr-e-Fatima, commonly known as Mohatta Palace.

The SHC also directed the official assignee to take control of the possession of the Fatima Jinnah’s heritage property in Clifton and to make a list of all inventory available in the building.

A bench of SHC headed by Justice Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan stated that all the parties, including the provincial government, supported a proposal to use the property for a medical college and hospital and they suggested that an independent body comprising retired apex court and high court judges, philanthropist, architect and others be constituted to take over the building and set up the college and hospital.

The SHC issues a detailed order in a 50-year-old suit relating to residence of Fatima Jinnah

The bench issued its detailed order on Saturday about a hearing held on Oct 13 on a suit filed in 1971 by a relative of Ms Jinnah about the administration of her moveable and immovable properties including Mohatta Palace.

The bench in its order stated that the counsel for the plaintiff pointed out that Qasr-e-Fatima had been handed over to the provincial government for repair and maintenance in 1993, but the same had been used by the Mohatta Palace Gallery Trust for exhibitions, musical functions, weddings under the umbrella of the culture department without any consent or permission of the SHC as the matter was sub judice.

“A request is made that for the incomes generated from holding private functions at the premises, a report be called from the department concerned,” it said and added that the representative of the culture department undertook to file such a statement in due course.

The provincial government had deposited a sum of Rs 61,188,000 with the SHC nazir in instalments in 1990s after requesting to get the possession of the said property for repair and maintenance and the amount was invested in an interest bearing security.

The report furnished by the nazir said that now the total amount of Rs733,251,903 was available with him, the order said.

The court observed that a proposal was made to use such amount as seed funds by the new trust for setting up the medical college and hospital and a provincial law officer sought time to get a nod from the authority concerned in this regard.

About any interim cost may be paid to the plaintiffs for following the litigation around 50 years, the bench said that the matter was left on the counsel to decide amongst them, but the court would pursue recovery of all assets listed in the suit and use all powers available to it to bring these assets to surface and the same would be dealt with on the next hearing.

The parties present in court suggested that an independent body be constituted comprising Dr Abdul Bari of Indus Hospital, Dr Adeeb Rizvi of SIUT, renowned architect Yasmeen Lari and the present plaintiff Nazish Amir Ali.

The presence of Ms Lari in the body will ensure that the architectural beauty and heritage of Qasr-e-Fatima not to be compromised in any way, the counsel said, according to the order.

The lawyers also requested that consent be sought from retried Supreme Court Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany and retired SHC Justice Fahim Ahmed Siddiqui to become part of the body and lead this noble task.

“Admittedly, this skeleton body may be enlarged by inviting likeminded people,” the order said.

The parties also requested the bench that the possession of Qasr-e-Fatima be handed over to the new body, to be headed by Justice Osmany, and let a trust be formed for the such purposes.

However, the bench asked the official assignee to take over the property in question and about the formulation of the new trust/body, it said that on the request of the counsel, the SHC registrar was directed to communicate this order to the retired judges and other individuals named herein.

The order further said that assets left by Ms Jinnah were transmitted to Shireen Jinnah, who in her last days was represented by the Shireen Jinnah Charitable Trust and the same came into being upon the trust deed having been signed by her.

The property is spread over 10,000 square yards and the document available on the file reflects that Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, as a part of the balance sale consideration for the purchase of the subject property, then known as Mohatta House, had made the payment of Rs943,300 through a cheque in favour of M. N. Kotwal in August 1948.

Initially, the suit was filed by Hussain Waliji, a relative of Ms Jinnah about the administration of her moveable and immovable properties including Qasr-e-Fatima in 1971 and after the death of the original plaintiff, his son Amir Ali was cited as plaintiff. He had also passed away during the pendency of this suit and his daughter Nazish Amir Ali had become the part of proceedings.

The litigation was initiated after the award of a succession certificate of such properties to Shireen Jinnah, the only surviving sister of Fatima Jinnah after her death on July 10, 1967. The Shireen Jinnah Charitable Trust was cited as one of the defendants in the lawsuit.

The suit was initially dismissed by a single-judge bench of SHC headed by Justice Zafar Hussain Mirza in December 1976 for not being maintainable. However, the plaintiff had filed an appeal before a division bench of the SHC and the bench, headed by then Chief Justice Abdul Hayee Kureshi, set aside the order and sent back the suit to a single bench to record further evidence.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2021