HYDERABAD: With Central government, the Princes Mukarram and Mufakkham Jah and the many descendants of the Nizam VII slated to be receiving a total of Rs 308 crore of the Nizam fund case, there is a section of citizens who are demanding the share for the various districts that were under the erstwhile Hyderabad State.
The argument goes that the money was sent to the account of the Pakistan High Commissioner Habib Rahimtoola was the money of Nizam’s government, and ergo was raised through taxes accrued from the Nizam’s subjects.
Historian Capt L Panduranga Reddy (retd), a fellow of Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, said, “The amount belongs to the people of erstwhile Hyderabad — eight districts of Telangana, five of Maharashtra and three of Karnataka. Before the police action many Hindus suffered, and after the police action many Muslims suffered. During the police action, many families suffered in Aurangabad, Latur and other places. These families should be identified and the sum should be distributed between them.”
Senior advocate and president of Muslim Reservation Front in a tweet said, “London bank should deposit the amount in the account of Telangana government because Nizam was our ruler.”
The funds were deposited into the London bank account of the then Pakistan High Commissioner Habib Ibrahim Rahimtoola by Nawab Moin Nawaz Jung, the finance minister and External affairs minister under the seventh Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan, in 1948.