Sir Sikandar’s granddaughter gets back her land

LAHORE: After the intervention of the Supreme Court, the granddaughter of Sir Sikandar Hayat, former prime minister of Punjab before Partition, on Thursday got back 297 Kanals which her husband had illegally grabbed by forging her signatures on the property documents.

The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) of Sargodha had registered an FIR on November 11, 2019, against Aslam Hayat Qureshi, his brother-in-law Munir Qureshi and officials of the Revenue Department including the Patwari concerned for preparing and using bogus documents of the property gifted to Lalarukh Hayat, the granddaughter of Sir Hayat, by her husband.

A special judge of the ACE and the Lahore High Court had dismissed pre-arrest bail of Aslam Qureshi, the husband of Lalarukh, and other suspects. A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court heard the bail petitions of the suspects on Thursday at the Lahore registry.

The other day, the bench had given one-day opportunity to both parties to deliberate upon the options for an amicable solution to the dispute.

As the bench resumed hearing, the counsel of the suspect (Qureshi) said his client had agreed to cancel the mutation of the property from his name and transfer the same to Lalarukh. The suspect, present in the court, also undertook to hand over the possession of the land to Lalarukh. The bench rose for a 15-minute break and directed the lawyers of both sides to come with an agreement in writing. As per the document of the agreement signed by both sides, Qureshi is liable to cancel the mutation of the land measuring 297 Kanals in Sargodha, which he had got transferred to his name with forgery, and transfer it back in the name of his wife. Lalarukh agreed that she would not have an objection if the suspects were granted bail in light of the agreement submitted before the court.

Dictating the order, Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik, the head of the bench, observed that the matter stood settled as the parties reached an agreement in writing and Aslam Qureshi had given assurance that he would fully abide by it. The bench allowed the pre-arrest bail to the suspects subject to furnishing bail bonds of Rs 100,000.

The bench had advised the parties to settle the matter amicably as there was little chance of relief in the bail petitions on merit since an expert of the Punjab Forensic Science Agency had declared that the signatures of Lalarukh were forged.

The husband agreed to the out-of-court-settlement to avoid going behind the bars. Qureshi had gifted the land to his wife in 1975. However, their relationship got strained after several decades and the husband prepared fake documents with forged signatures of the complainant to take back the land. Lalarukh came to know that the property ownership had been changed back to her husband`s name when she approached the Patwari for the ownership documents.

Later, the ACE, on her information, conducted an inquiry and found the officials of the Revenue Department guilty of preparing bogus documents in connivance with Qureshi and other suspects. Finally, the ACE lodged an FIR against all the suspects for committing forgery and preparing bogus documents.