Ahead of the upcoming talks between India and Pakistan, descendants of the Nizam of Hyderabad have stepped up their pressure on the Government to restart negotiations with Islamabad for an out-of-court settlement of the dispute over crores of their family money locked in a British bank. The grandsons and granddaughters of the late Nizam, who have formed the Nizam Family Welfare Association, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week and urged him to ensure that legal heirs of the Nizam got a share of the money estimated to be Rs 250-300 crore.

“We have been assured that the matter would be seriously pursued by the Government,” Nawab Nazaf Ali Khan, a grandson of the Nizam, told reporters here. Khan is one of the 96 cousins who claim to be the legal third-generation heirs of the Nizam. The Government had last month agreed to restart talks with Pakistan on the issue. Both India and Pakistan are claiming the one million pounds, which was deposited in the UK bank in 1948 by the Nizam’s foreign minister just before Hyderabad was amalgamated in the Indian union. That money has now grown by over 30 times.

The money was deposited in the account of the then Pakistani High Commissioner in London without the knowledge of the Nizam. When he came to know of it, the Nizam wrote to the bank asking it to stop any withdrawal.

After Hyderabad’s merger with India, the Government staked its claim on the money on the grounds that it was state money and like every other property of Hyderabad state, it should be transferred to the Indian Union. But since it was transferred in the account of Pakistani High Commissioner to London, Pakistan, too, staked a claim. The descendants of the Nizam also claim the money on the ground that it was private money of the Nizam.

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