Pakistan stakes a claim to crown jewel
A JUDGE in Pakistan has agreed to hear a lawsuit claiming the Koh-i-Noor diamond from the crown jewels belongs to the country.
British-trained lawyer Javed Iqbal Jaffry claims the gem should be returned as it was seized from territory that became Pakistan in 1947.
The 105-carat gem, once the largest known diamond in the world, has long been at the centre of dispute. It was acquired by Britain in 1849 when the East India Company annexed the Punjab.
It is set in a crown last worn by the late Queen Mother during her coronation and is on display with the crown jewels at the Tower of London. The legal petition was first rejected by the Lahore High Court on paperwork grounds – but a judge has now accepted the case and it will proceed to a further hearing. Mr Jaffry, who has written 786 letters to the Queen and to Pakistan before filing the lawsuit, named the Queen and the British High Commission in Islamabad as respondents in his case.
He argued that Britain ‘forcibly and under duress’ stole the diamond from Daleep Singh, the grandson of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh and last ruler of the Sikhs and seized it to Britain.
Mr Jaffry said the Koh-i-Noor – Persian for ‘ Mountain of Light – was ‘ not legitimately acquired’. ‘Grabbing and snatching it was a private, illegal act which is justified by no law or ethics,’ he has said. ‘A wrong is a wrong. It does not become righteous or right by passage of time or even acquiescence.’
India has also laid claim to the jewel. Last year, Bollywood stars and businessmen instructed lawyers to begin legal proceedings in London’s High Court to return the diamond.