Staff Correspondent

The name of the Dhaka Nawab family remains deeply intertwined with the history of Bengal, having played a seminal role in shaping the region’s education, social welfare, culture, and urban infrastructure.

However, over the decades, severe questions have emerged regarding the present legal status, ownership, management, and physical possession of a vast portion of the estate's historical landholdings.

The central issue facing the estate today is no longer merely the scale of property the family once commanded, but establishing how much land can legally be verified as belonging to the estate today, resolving decades of litigation, and bringing recoverable assets under transparent management.

According to Nawab Dr Khwaja Iqbal Ahsanullah, the current Mutawalli of the Nawab Estate, the property associated with the Nawab Salimullah family spans vast areas across Bangladesh.

However, determining the true boundary of the estate requires rigorous examination of historical Waqf deeds, government gazettes, cadastral surveys, land records, and judicial orders.

Historical Waqf documents recorded between 1854 and 1874, along with official Nawab Estate gazettes from the 1930s to the 1960s, reference approximately 1.93 million bighas of land. In stark contrast, present land records reflect a fraction of that figure—around 20,000 bighas or less. This vast discrepancy raises critical questions about whether the reduction stems from state land acquisition, illegal occupation, unrecorded transfers, leasehold conversions, administrative errors, or unresolved Waqf management issues.

A major portion of the disputed land remains locked in civil courts, higher judicial proceedings, and land administration appeals. Long-standing legal restrictions and competing title claims have rendered substantial economic assets entirely idle.

Concurrently, representatives of the estate allege widespread unauthorized occupation of estate land.

Legal experts note, however, that verifying such claims requires establishing three core facts for every single plot: legal ownership through verified title deeds and mutation records, current physical possession, and whether current occupation is backed by valid long-term leases, government settlements, or judicial stays.

Without documentary verification, distinguishing between legitimate leaseholders, government khas acquisitions, and unlawful encroachers remains nearly impossible.

Estate leadership argues that if legally secured properties are recovered and brought under transparent administration, they could serve as vital economic drivers. Proposed uses include establishing industrial units, food processing hubs, vocational training institutions, and logistics centers to generate local employment.

Moreover , the Mutawalli has proposed utilizing suitable urban land for planned multi-storey residential projects to address housing shortages, including potential accommodation for participants of recent national social movements. Implementing such proposals, however, would require strict regulatory frameworks, public-private partnerships, and legal oversight to safeguard trust assets.

To resolve the impasse, urban planners and legal experts advocate for an immediate, independent audit to build a comprehensive digital land database consolidating location details, survey numbers, legal status, and current possession records.

Experts emphasize that resolving these ownership disputes through the Ministry of Land, district administrations, and competent courts will determine whether the historical legacy of the Dhaka Nawab Estate can finally be converted into a productive resource for the country's economy.