Three days after Hyderabad surrendered in 1948, its minister moved £1 million to Pakistan's envoy; a London court gave it back to the Nizam's heirs 71 years later

Indian troops entered Hyderabad on 13 September 1948. Its forces surrendered on 17 September. On 20 September the Nizam's finance minister, Moin Nawaz Jung, moved £1,007,940 9s from a Hyderabad government account at Westminster Bank in London to an account in the name of Habib Ibrahim Rahimtoola, Pakistan's High Commissioner. The Nizam sued in 1954. Pakistan claimed sovereign immunity, and the House of Lords stayed the case. The money stayed frozen. The 7th Nizam died in 1967. In 2013 Pakistan sued the bank for the fund, which waived its immunity. By then it had grown to about £35 million. The Nizam's grandsons, Prince Mukarram Jah (the 8th Nizam) and Prince Muffakham Jah, and India settled their claims among themselves in a confidential agreement. Pakistan argued the money paid for arms sent to Hyderabad. On 2 October 2019 Mr Justice Marcus Smith held that Pakistan had held the fund on trust and that "Nizam VII was beneficially entitled to the Fund." He rejected the arms argument. In December 2019 Pakistan was ordered to pay 65 percent of the other sides' costs on account and decided not to appeal. Mukarram Jah died in Istanbul on 15 January 2023. The money was released to the princes and India under their settlement^†.