Lahore: Pakistan’s Punjab Government has informed the Lahore High Court that Koh-i-Noor was shifted to the United Kingdom following an agreement between Raja Ranjit Singh and the East India Company in 1849. The statement was made by the law officer of the government during the hearing of a petition filed by a senior lawyer Javed Iqbal Jaffrey for bringing the Koh-i-Noor back to the country from the UK, reports Dawn. sserting that the agreement was named ‘Treaty of Lahore’, the officer said that the 105 carat Kohinoor could not be brought back.
Petitioner Jaffrey opposing the government’s contention said that an agreement had to be reached between the two governments and cited that the East India Company was not authorised to sign such an agreement. In the petition, he said that the British rulers had snatched Koh-i-Noor from Daleep Singh, the grandson of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, and took it to the UK. He also asked that court to direct the government, being a member of the Commonwealth countries in bringing the diamond back to Islamabad.
Jaffrey pleaded that Queen Elizabeth had no right on Koh-i-Noor as it was a cultural heritage of Punjab province. Justice Khalid Mahmood Khan adjourned the hearing till May 2 and directed the government’s counsel to submit a copy of the agreement between Ranjit Singh and the East India Company.
