MicroPakistan

This house is worth much more than its monetary estimated value of $400 million. It was a house built by Mr Jinnah in 1936 at a then exorbitant price of 2 lakh (200,000) rupees when he returned to Mumbai from England to take charge of the Muslim League. Jinnah House is located on Mount Pleasant Road (now Bhausaheb Hirey Marg) in the upmarket Malabar Hill area of South Mumbai. Malabar Hill is the most expensive area in Mumbai today. Right opposite it is the residence of the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

Mr Jinnah had shown willingness to return to that house after partition and had requested Mr Nehru, India’s first prime-minister, through the Indian High Commisioner to not sell the house or declare it evacuee property, but give it to a foreign mission or family to live in so that they may appreciate its European architecture.

Nehru, on his part decided not to declare Jinnah House as an evacuee property and in a note to the Cabinet on March 7,1955 had said. “I think we should further be prepared to make a gift of it to the Pakistan government,” as documented in Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru. But, Nehru could not get approval from his cabinet.

Unfortunately, today it is in a terrible state and the Indian government has done nothing to preserve it since the British High Commission vacated it in 1982. Musharraf and his government have made several claims on it in the last couple of years, but haven’t received a reply from the Indian government. Now, Mrs. Wadia (Jinnah’s daughter) has claimed the property in a Mumbai court.

I am not sure what she intends to do with it, or for that matter her son or grandsons intend to do with it who already possess great wealth (they own Wadia Group, one of the largest conglomerates in India). It is hoped that if she is granted possession she would invest money to renovate the house. Also, since it has been 60+ years since the Jinnah family left the house it doesn’t seem Mrs Wadia really needs it or has any emotional attachment with it and it would be hoped that she leases it out to the Pakistani High Commission. No doubt it would give the Pakistani people a great cause for celebration that they are able to physically possess their founders most beloved possession on the ‘other side’ of the border.

Reported in DAWN:

MUMBAI, Aug 8: The daughter of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah has asked an Indian court to grant her claim to a sprawling home built by her father in India before the country’s partition in 1947.

Mr Jinnah constructed a European-style seafront bungalow in the late 1930s in India’s commercial capital of Mumbai, where he lived with his wife and only daughter before moving to the newly-created Pakistan at independence.

For decades, Jinnah House, with its imposing columns, Italian marble and walnut panelling, was home to Britain’s deputy high commissioner but mostly fell into disuse after being vacated in 1982.

On Tuesday, Mr Jinnah’s 88-year-old daughter, Dina Wadia, who lives in New York, approached the high court in Mumbai in a bid to gain ownership of the property, built on 2.5 acres of land, estimated to be worth about $400 million.

“Being the only child of Mr Jinnah, she is the sole heir to his property,” Wadia’s lawyer Shrikanth Doijode said. “This is the only property in India which she is claiming and which is in the possession of the Indian government at present.”

The historic house was the venue for watershed talks on the subcontinent’s partition between Mr Jinnah and Indian leaders.

Pakistan has repeatedly requested New Delhi either to sell or lease the house to its government for use as a consular office. India has neither refused nor accepted that request. The house now remains locked and is in an advanced state of decay.

After partition the Indian government appropriated immovable and movable property left behind by those who chose to go to Pakistan, designating such assets as evacuee property.

But as a goodwill gesture, India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, ensured neither Jinnah nor his daughter were declared evacuees. Nor was the Jinnah House registered as an evacuee property.—Reuters