The Prime Minister’s office has given its nod for transferring the ownership of Jinnah House in Mumbai’s Malabar Hill to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). The structure will be renovated on the lines of Hyderabad House in New Delhi.
BJP MLA Mangal Prabhat Lodha had written to Minister for External affairs Sushama Swaraj in October. Swaraj has conveyed to Lodha that the PMO okayed transfer of the property from ICCR (Indian Council for Cultural Relations) to the MEA.
Mohammed Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan, converted the building as his residence in 1936. The 2.5-acre space is witness to many a historic meetings.
Swaraj in her reply had informed Lodha that after Independence, the British High Commission was using this Jinnah House till 1982. It was handed over to CPWD (Central Public Works Department) in 1982 and after sanction by the then PMO the Urban Development department ordered CPWD to hand it over to it who then passed it over to ICCR in 1988. In 1996 the PMO decided to set up a cultural center at Jinnah House.
Accordingly, Jinnah House was transferred to February 1997 to ICCR and it was decided to convert it in to the SAARC sub-regional center.
