Hyderabad, TELANGANA  :

With a UK court on Tuesday rejecting India’s arguments regarding the ownership of 35 million pounds lying in the Nat West account, the case would now proceed to trial, unless settled. After 68 years, the court has arrived at who are the litigants in the case so that a trial would be started.

Though it happens to be a snub at India, experts see a bright possibility of the issue being resolved in the next couple of years. “The initial euphoria is as if the entire money is handed over to Pakistan, which is not the case. I had suggested a formula earlier, to divide the money into three equal parts -one each part to Governments of India and Pakistan and Nizam’s family (two of his eldest grandsons as he wished) and this would have been logically acceptable to all the parties. Eventually, I think that is going to happen,” said Md Safiullah, a city based historian and managing trustee of Deccan Heritage Trust

The sum of `310 crore in his opinion is quite a small amount to government of India. “The amount was huge at the time of transfer. Imagine what would have the amount been today had it been invested in business then?,” he asked.

Over the years, Pakistan had been trying to convince the court that money was sent by the Nizam to the newly formed state of Pakistan which did not have any funds at its disposal. The seventh Nizam had in fact sent `20 cr to that country by then. The Nizam’s agent General Nawab Fazal Jung Bahadur, had transferred one million pound to Habib Ibrahim Rahimtoola, the high commissioner of Pakistan, in 1948 at a time of political uncertainty when the future of the then princely kingdom of Hyderabad was in the balance.

“In fact, immediately upon knowing of the transfer of funds to the Pakistan high commissioner, the Nizam sent a telegram that the amount was transferred without his knowledge,” Saifullah added.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Andhra Pradesh / by Express News Service / June 22nd, 2016