Artist's daughter seeks return of mother's works

ISLAMABAD - President Asif Ali Zardari seems to have been so overwhelmed by his love of art that he has allegedly taken into possession paintings worth millions of rupees of late Laila Shahzada, the first Pakistani woman painter who gained international repute due to her exhibitions.
It is strange how these paintings reached London with other furniture and fixture owned by Asif Zardari and late Benazir Bhutto but some documents available with TheNation revealed that valuable paintings of Laila kept stored in the luggage of Zardari for many years at the warehouse of James Owen & Company, Valuers and Auctioneers at James Owen House, 136/144 Granville Road, London.
As is clearly evident from a letter written by Kallis & Company, Insolvency Practitioners and Liquidators to Mr Steven A Frieze, Brooke North Solicitors on 24 November 2003, that the paintings were in goods stored on behalf of Benazir Bhutto.
According to the letter, The company was storing goods on the instruction of Richard Howard & Company, solicitors acting for Benazir Bhutto... However as you may be aware that Benazir Bhuttos assets were frozen due to various criminal issues... The company did not take any action in respect of the outstanding invoices since Richard Howard was a director of the company and gave assurances that payment would be forthcoming once Ms Bhuttos assets were released.
I would also advise that the ownership of the assets is under question... Mr Shahzada is claiming ownership of the painting as his deceased mother was the painter, it added.
In another letter written by K Kallis on behalf of Kallis & Company on 3rd May 2003 to Ruven Cohen, Director of James Owen & Company, I took instructions to proceed with the liquidation of the above company (Challenger Group Holdings PLC) today by the director Mr Carl Coveney... Even though the furniture & fixture as well as computer equipment are not expected to realise much more than 1000-2000 UK Pounds, the company is owed the amount of 27,465.63 UK Pounds from Richard Howard & Company for storing fixtures and fittings and expensive items for Benazir Bhutto from Pakistan.
As you know her husband is in jail and their assets are frozen and the directors feel that we have every right to threaten to sell those assets unless they pay the outstanding warehouse rent. As the superior landlord is owed money by Challenger Group, it is wise to speak to Carl (Director) as soon as possible in order to make arrangements and perhaps decide whether to remove those assets to your warehouse, it added.
When contacted by TheNation, Shaheen Shahzada, the elder daughter of Laila Shahzada, confirmed the allegations that Zardari had illegally and cunningly captured her mothers valuable paintings in connivance with her younger brother Sohail Shahzada from the personal studio of her mother located in Karachi soon after performing the funeral of Laila in the year 1994. About Sohail Shahzada, she said that he was an old class fellow of Zardari at Petaro Cadet College and was now working as his front man and was managing all of his businesses in US.
Laila Shahzada, one of the pioneers of art world in Pakistan, was awarded Tamgha-I-Imtiaz by the Government of Pakistan in 1984 as well as Pride of Performance posthumously in 1995, Pakistans highest civil award.
Laila was presented the 'Key to the City of New York and Bicentennial Gold Medallion by the Mayor of New York in 1975 for his cultural contribution to the city, the first and only Pakistani to receive this award.
Laila succumbed to burn injuries after a tragic gas explosion took place in her Islamabads home in July 1994.
Shaheen said that some officials of Ehtesab Bureau, after the demise of PPP-led government in 1996, had informed her that those paintings, 97 in number, were kept in Bilawal House at Karachi. I had also lodged a complaint with the Bureau in this regard but of no avail, she added. According to her, many years later she again visited NAB but Chairman NAB Lt General Munir Hafiz informed her that the earlier file of Ehtesab Bureau had lost.
According to Shaheen, Zardari and Bhutto family were their old family friends and through some common friends, she demanded these paintings from Zardari. Asif claimed, according to her, that he had bought them from Sohail but he knew that these belonged to all the three children of Laila. Farhatullah Babar, the Spokesman of President Asif Ali Zardari, when contacted for comments, said that he was not aware of the warehouse and anything connected with it. He refused to comment further on the issue.