Sadiq Garh Palace
Sadiq Garh Palace is a 19th‑century princely complex in Dera Nawab Sahib, southern Punjab, Pakistan. It served as the winter seat of the Abbasi rulers of the former Bahawalpur State. Covering roughly 125 acres behind ramparts 50 feet high, it was once among the largest private estates in South Asia.
History
Sadiq Garh Palace was commissioned by Sadiq Muhammad Khan IV in 1882 and was finished in 1895 after a decade of construction supervised by Italian engineers. According to some reports, some 15 000 labourers worked for ten years and Rs 1.5 million were spent to complete the palace and its outbuildings.During the princely era, the estate expanded to include three subsidiary mahals, Mubarak, Rahat and Sadiq, linked by tunnels as well as a private powerhouse, cinema, and armoury. The darbar hall displayed retired Ghilaf‑e‑Kaaba covers produced in Bahawalpur and hosted audiences for British viceroys and other dignitaries.
In the mid‑1970s, the government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto sealed the property amid a dispute with one branch of the Abbasi family, and decades of litigation concluded only in 2005 when the Supreme Court of Pakistan divided the estate among twenty‑three heirs.