Hamdard split at Partition, its Pakistani founder was shot dead in Karachi, and the Delhi heirs' fight over the waqf took Rooh Afza off Indian shelves

Hakim Hafiz Abdul Majid founded Hamdard in Delhi in 1906. After his death in 1922 his widow and two sons ran it. In 1948 the family signed a waqf deed. A trustee who died was to be replaced by his eldest son. In 1948 his son Hakim Mohammed Said founded Hamdard Dawakhana in Pakistan. Said, a former provincial governor, was shot dead by two gunmen at his clinic in Karachi on 17 October 1998. In Delhi, Hakim Abdul Hamid made his sons Abdul Mueed and Hammad Ahmed trustees in 1964. The deed was amended in 1973. When Hamid died in 1999, Abdul Mueed became chief trustee. He died in 2015. In 2017 his brother Hammad Ahmed and Hamid's grandson Abdul Majeed both claimed the post. In October 2017 a single judge of the Delhi High Court favoured Hammad Ahmed. In November 2018 a division bench set that order aside. The Supreme Court then let Hammad Ahmed run Hamdard until trial. In May 2019 Rooh Afza disappeared from Indian markets. On 22 October 2019 the family split the business: medicines to Abdul Majeed's side, foods to Hammad Ahmed's. The Delhi High Court made it a consent decree on 13 December 2019. Disputes went to arbitration in September 2022. On 29 September 2026 the High Court refused to appoint an auditor in a tax-exemption dispute and left it to the arbitrator. The arbitration is pending.