MUMBAI, 23 January 2007 — After nearly 20 years of dispute, the federal government has approved the conversion of the former house of Pakistan’s founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah into an art and cultural center for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
Jinnah constructed the three-acre bungalow atop the Malabar Hill in 1936. After India’s independence in 1947, it was taken over and leased to the British High Commission, which made it the official residence of its deputy high commissioner. In 1977, the bungalow was transferred to the Public Works Department and since then there has been a tug of war over it possession between Indian and Pakistan. Pakistan wanted to buy the property and convert it into the Pakistani Consulate. The India refused and instead handed it over to the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR). That raised a storm of protest in Pakistan.
According to Tasneem Mehta, the convener of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), work on renovating Jinnah House will begin next month and the international SAARC center would be thrown open to the public on Aug. 15, the 60th anniversary of India’s Independence.
