Liaquat Ali Khan’s kin claim half of UP’s Muzaffarnagar

• Jamshed Ali, Khurshed Ali, Mumtaz Begum and Imtiaz Begum claim land being direct descendants of Umar Daraz Ali Khan

If the descendants of Pakistan’s first prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan win this battle, half of Muzaffarnagar city in UP will be theirs, including the railway station, DM’s residence, a central school and a host of other landmarks. It’s a fight that has gripped the imagination of this bustling western Uttar Pradesh town.

The property dispute relates to the ownership of Rs 674 crore worth of real estate in Muzaffarnagar, which belonged to Liaquat Ali and his kin. The district administration has dug up all old records to rubbish the claim.

It was in 2003 that four local residents, said to be distant relatives of Liaquat Ali, prepared a deed declaring themselves his descendants. They then quietly approached the UP Revenue Commission to get possession of 106 plots owned by the Khan family in the city, which roughly covered 50 percent of Muzaffarnagar.

When the Muzaffarnagar DM finally received a direction from the revenue commission two weeks ago to look into the matter, the acquisition was quickly labelled a “fraud”. An FIR was lodged on Thursday and a probe is on. An investigation to be headed by the ADM (finance) has also been set up.

Liaquat Ali had served as a member of the provincial legislative council from Muzaffarnagar between 1926 and 1940, when he was finally elected to the central legislative assembly.

According to his four “relatives”, Liaquat Ali’s family had huge properties in the district and after his migration to Pakistan, his cousin Umar Daraz Ali got the possession of all of it. Subsequently, it was transferred to Daraz Ali’s son Ajaz Ali. The four claim to be Ajaz’s progeny.

Local tehsildar Rajnikant told Times of India: “The four accused, Jamshed Ali, Khurshed Ali, Mumtaz Begum and Imtiaz Begum had made the deed documents on February 26, 2003. After waiting for a couple of years, the deed documents were sent to the revenue board in Lucknow and they demanded possession of the properties.”

The board then asked the district administration about the actual position of these plots and the buildings erected on the claimed lands.

The district administration, in turn, checked its records and found that the land being claimed now housed a number of government buildings, including the DM’s bungalow, railway station, company garden, central school and other prominent structures.

One of the accused, who requested anonymity, insisted the family has the records to prove ownership. “The administration is playing a dirty game,” he said. “Jamshed Ali, Khurshed Ali, Mumtaz Begum and Imtiaz Begum are the rightful owners of the property being the direct descendants of Umar Daraz Ali Khan. We have records to prove it.”