With a UK court ruling in favour of a full trial in the famous Hyderabad Fund case, interest has renewed in the `322 crore frozen fund in a British Bank, with calls for its division between the three claimants i.e. India, Pakistan and the Nizam family, the rulers of erstwhile Hyderabad State.
Mohammed Safifullah, a heritage activist and the Head of the Deccan Heritage Trust feels that the time was ripe now for settling the dispute by dividing the fund among the three claimants.
He said that it was wrong to infer from the latest development that the Pakistan had won and it was going to get the fund. “Only this which has happened is that the court has ruled in favor of a full trial and it will go on for a couple of more years”, he said.
Safiullah says that the best solution for all the parties would be to arrive at some sort of a settlement to divide the fund into three equal parts. He pointed out that the last ruler of Hyderabad had wished that the money should be divided between his two eldest grandsons and they should get one part of it the remaining two going to the Governments of India and Pakistan. “I think this is eventually going to happen”.
Other experts of Hyderabad history were of the view that India’s claim over the fund was very strong. “Historically whatever belonged to the Nizam should come back to India”, said another Heritage activist of Hyderabad Sajjad Shahed adding that there was no justification in the transfer of fund to Pakistan.
Another writer Inamur Rahman Ghayur was of the view that in the fight between India and Pakistan, it was England and it’s the bank who benefitted immensely from this dispute.
The origin of the case lies in the transfer of about one million Pound from Hyderabad Government to Pakistan through the then British High Commissioner to london Habib Ibrahim Rahimtoola on September 20, 1948, days after Hyderabad State was merged in to Indian Union.
Asserting that the fund was transferred by Moin Nawaz Jung, Hyderabad’s representative to the Security Council without his authority and knowledge, Hyderabad ruler Nizam Mir Osmani Ali Khan sent a wire to the Westminister Bank on September 27, 1948 demanding the return of the money.
However the bank rejected his demand saying it can be done only with the mutual understanding of all the parties, triggering a long drawn legal battle which is likely to continue far into the future.
Though the money transferred was only 1007,940 pounds and nine shillings, which was frozen by the bank, it has now grown to a sizeable of `322 crores with three claimants in the Governments of India and Pakistan and the legal heirs of the Nizam.
The latest ruling by the UK court in favor of a full trial to settle the claims has brought the case to the center stage generating a lot of interest in Hyderabad.
Nawab Najaj Ali Khan, one of the grandsons of the last Mir Osman Ali Khan said that the UK Court’s ruling has given room for Pakistan to participate in the trial. “India wanted to strike out Pakistan but the English court has rejected it”, he said adding that the case will drag on. Even as India and Pakistan were locked in a legal battle to get the fund transferred to them, the Nizam family had impleaded in the British Court case back in March 2014.