LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has resolved a decades-old property dispute dating back to before Partition, setting aside a trial court verdict that had granted inheritance rights to the heirs of a deceased sister.
Justice Khalid Ishaq, in a 29-page judgment, noted that the sister, Ghafooran Bibi, lived until 1988 but never approached any legal forum to claim a share. Her children also remained silent for 21 years after her death before suddenly filing a case in 2009 challenging a 1952 property settlement.
The court observed that under the 1952 agreement, land in Kamonki was allotted to the widow and brother of Abdul Ghafoor—one of the original heirs of Karim Bakhsh, who had owned property in India’s village Bras before Partition. The agreement did not mention Abdul Ghafoor’s sister, Ghafooran Bibi.
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Her children’s claim, filed decades later, was declared time-barred. The trial court had initially dismissed their suit in 2013, but on appeal, it was revived with certain directions. That ruling has now been annulled by the LHC, which upheld the legality of the 1952 property division.
The court allowed the petitioner’s appeal and declared the trial court’s decree in favour of Ghafooran Bibi’s heirs void.
