Stolen antiques found in police possession

As official efforts continue to dispose of the property of the last Nawab of Bahawalpur, the former ruler of the princely State of Bahawalpur, valuable antiques that were found missing from his ancestral home have been discovered in the possession of police.

The matter of determining the future of property owned by the late Sir Sadiq Mohammed Khan Abbasi has lingered on now for over two decades. His palace, and the many valuables within it fell to the State after the principality was annexed in the 1970s.

His legal heirs have since disputed the seizure of the property and a committee set up recently decided it should be distributed between his heirs, while valuables could be auctioned off with the proceeds shared between heirs and the State.

However, an inventory carried out a few months ago indicated many items were missing from the palace, when compared to a similar listing of valuables carried out soon after the seizure.

Courts have been moved to recover these items, many of them apparently extremely valuable antiques. Several stolen antiques, including two sculptures of Russian Czar and a woman (probably his wife), crystal arms of the broken dining chairs, parts of a broken chandelier, swords and rifles belonging to the late Nawab have surfaced at the police maalkhana (store) at Ahmedpur East, near Bahawalpur.

It is uncertain how they got there. These articles, allegedly stolen from Sadiqgarh Palace, Dera Nawab Sahib, during the last several years, were recovered by the police in about 25 to 30 theft cases.

It is unclear however why police apparently made no effort to return them to the palace.

Court cases regarding the theft of these items are now on. Out of them, four cases were decided by courts. This was informed by Ahmedpur East police to EDO Abdul Ghafoor Bhatti, the sub-committee chairman for the auction of palace articles, who inspected the maalkhana to secure them for the auction as directed by the implementation committee.