On Thursday, the Sindh High Court (SHC) made a significant ruling by dismissing the legal claims against Qasr-e-Fatima, more commonly known as Mohatta Palace.
The court’s decision established that the Palace would be repurposed to establish a medical and dental college exclusively for girls.
Justice Aadil Arab, presiding over the SHC bench, rendered the judgment in favor of resolving a 52-year-old, long-standing dispute over the heritage property of Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah located in Clifton.
Back in 2021, a single-judge bench of the SHC, led by Justice Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan, issued an order that the envisioned college would include a hostel facility. This course of action was agreed upon through amicable negotiations between the plaintiffs and defendants, resulting in a consensus to establish the medical and dental college.
The provincial apex court effectively dismissed the lawsuits filed by the applicants and interveners.
The court ruled on the Civil Miscellaneous Application (CMA) submitted by the applicants, urging the inclusion of specific documents as evidence. It was clarified that the non-inclusion of any document at this juncture cannot be deemed fatal, particularly considering that evidence has already been presented.
In the court’s view, the applicants and interveners neither constitute necessary nor relevant parties in the ongoing proceedings, as the matter pertains to the administration of privately owned property. Thus, neither the Trust nor nearby residents have a legitimate cause of action in this case.
The interveners lack any legal standing as heirs or individuals with a relationship to the deceased owner of the property in question. The inclusion of interveners as parties, whether deemed necessary or relevant, would not yield any substantive outcome in the ongoing administration of the estate.
As previously mentioned, evidence pertinent to the case has already been recorded, and the proceedings are currently in the phase of Final Arguments. Consequently, the addition of new parties lacks merit.
The SHC judge emphasized, “Father and Mother of the nation gave an area of approximately 197,00,000 acres to the people of Pakistan and had let them use this huge chunk of land as per their own discretion and choice, out of that millions of acres of land, when only one acre in the form of Qasar-e-Fatima is interested to be used per the wishes and Will of the founders, one wonders how ungrateful we are to even object to such a use, that too for the spread of knowledge and education amongst womenfolks.”
It’s important to note that the court has been overseeing the administration of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s assets since 1971, and the proceedings have reached the stage of Final Arguments.
After extensive deliberations, the legal heirs, as a gesture of goodwill, conceded that they would have no objections or claims over Qasar-e-Fatima (Mohatta Palace) if the property is utilized in accordance with Fatima Jinnah’s will for the establishment of a Medical/Dental College.
Source: Pro Pakistani