Saba Ali Khan


Saba Ali Khan is a jewelry designer and mutawalli of the Auqaf-e-Shahi established by the princely state of Bhopal as a royal charitable endowment. A member of the Pataudi family of Pashtun ancestry, she is the daughter of Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and Sharmila Tagore and the sister of Indian actors, Saif Ali Khan and Soha Ali Khan. She is the granddaughter of Sajida Begum, the Nawab Begum of Bhopal.

Auqaf-e-Shahi

The Auqaf-e-Shahi is a charitable trust that was endowed by the royal family of the princely state of Bhopal. The trust manages a portfolio worth Rs 1200 crore, consisting mainly of real estate in Bhopal apart from properties in Mecca as well as Medina in Saudi Arabia. As a convention, a family member of the ruler of the state of Bhopal, or the ruler himself, was the mutawalli, the chief trustee who managed the assets of the trust for philanthropic purposes. Indian cricket captain Mansoor Ali Khan, who was the titular Nawab of Bhopal and Pataudi was the mutawalli till his death in 2011. Saba served under her father as naib mutawalli before taking over the reigns after his demise, while her brother Saif Ali Khan inherited the titular titles of the Nawab of Bhopal and Pataudi, and the respective estates.
Mansoor Ali Khan reportedly did not think of his son as a possible mutawalli, conscious that a film actor's appointment as head of Islamic religious bodies may not go down well with certain sections.
In her tenure as the mutawalli, Auqaf-e-Shahi has acquired certain additional properties in Mecca. In 2016, she announced that the Waqf tribunal has declared that 34 acres of land around the Shahi Qabristan in Bhopal belonged to Auqaf-e-Shahi, and the same would be monetised with the proceeds going to improve the educational and health institutions of Bhopal.