Daily Times

LAHORE: Lahore High Court Justice Muhammad Khalid Mehmood Khan has sought assistance of the attorney general of Pakistan and Punjab advocate general on a petition seeking directions to the federal government to take back Koh-e-Noor diamond from Queen Elizabeth-II of Britain.

The judge earlier had directed the counsel to submit copy of the treaty of Lahore 1849 under which this diamond was handed over to British East India Company.

The government counsel on Tuesday informed that the copy of this contract had already been submitted before the court.

Petitioner Barrister Syed Javed Iqbal Jaffree submitted that Koh-e-Noor was once the largest cut diamond in the world and this 105-carat stone was presented to Queen Victoria during the British Raj. He alleged that British rulers during their occupation of the Sub-continent had seized Koh-e-Noor, weighing 105 carats and worth billions of rupees, from Daleep Singh, grandson of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh, and took it to the United Kingdom.

He said that this diamond was in the crown worn by the queen at the coronation of her husband King George VI in 1937 and again at Queen Elizabeth-II coronation in 1953.

He said that since then this diamond is in British possession whereas the Queen Elizabeth had no right on the Koh-e-Noor.

He said that the diamond actually belongs to Pakistan as the gem hailed from the territory that became Pakistan in the aftermath of the historic partition of the subcontinent in 1947.

He said that the snatched diamond was cultural heritage of Punjab and its citizens owned it in fact.

He requested to direct the federal government bring the diamond back to Pakistan.