Nazia Hassan Foundation dissolved in UK over failing to comply with legal requirements

• Trustees failed to submit annual reports of the charity for nearly 1,000 days, official records show.
• The Nazia Hassan Foundation was set up in 2003 as a charity via a company limited by guarantee.
• Official record shows NHF had negligible income over the years and hardly engaged in any activity.

LONDON: The Nazia Hassan Foundation (NHF) has been struck off by the UK Companies House after the trustees responsible to run the charitable organisation and advancing the legacy of singer Nazia Hassan failed to comply with legal requirements due to negligence.

The Charity Commission, the regulator of charities, confirmed to Geo News that it has begun the process of removing the Nazia Hassan Foundation from the register of charities.

Records available at the UK Companies House show that Nazia Hassan Foundation’s trustees failed to submit annual reports of the charity for nearly 1,000 days.  

The NHF was set up in 2003 as a charity via a company limited by guarantee — two years after the legendary singer died due to cancer. 

Zoheb Hassan, singer and brother of Nazia Hassan, told this reporter that the NHF was run by his mother Muniza Basir but “since she is not well we made it dormant in the UK for the time being”.

However, the UK’s register of companies shows that NHF is not dormant but dissolved through a “compulsory strike-off”. 

The Charity Commission said that Muniza Basir, Zahra Hassan, and M Hassan have remained the trustees throughout.

'Trustees failed to comply with legal requirement'

In a statement to this correspondent, a spokesman of the Charity Commission said: “The trustees of the charity have failed to comply with the legal requirement to submit annual returns with the Charity Commission. As the charity has been dissolved as a charitable company, the Commission will look to remove it from the register of charities."

The public rightly expects charities to be transparent and accountable about what they do and how they spend their funds, the spokesman said.

The NHF remained a dormant company till April 2020 but the Companies House raised a notice of compulsory strike-off on December 1, 2020. After a representation was made, the compulsory strike-off action was suspended on January 12, 2021, but the foundation was dissolved via compulsory strike-off on March 30, 2021.

The overall history of the foundation shows that the accounts were usually not filed on time since the foundation was formed in 2003 and there were several strike-off notices — leading up to this year’s compulsory strike-off. 

The record shows that the NHF had negligible income over the years and hardly engaged in any activity.

Active Facebook page

While the NHF's Facebook page remained active throughout the years, hardly anyone took any interest in advancing the objectives that the foundation was built on after Nazia, 38, had passed away at the North London Hospice. 

The trustees, at the time of registering the charity, resolved that NHF’s objectives will be “the alleviation of poverty, hardship, and suffering in particular among children”. 

Two years after Nazia’s death, her mother Muniza and father Basir Hasan set up the NHF in 2003 with help from Uddipta Das, Zahra Hassan, Richard Joseph Charles Flynn, and Mahmood Hassan — but later many of them resigned. 

Recent case that made headlines

The fight over Nazia’s legacy came into focus last week when the singer’s brother Zoheb claimed that the late singer had provided a UK court a testimony under oath against her husband Ishtiaq Baig. 

According to Zoheb, Nazia, in her statement, said that Ishtiaq had slowly "fed her something", detained her, and committed domestic violence. However, the record kept by the UK authorities shows that Nazia died of natural causes, did not die of poison, and was not kept as a slave — and the police established these facts after a five-month-long investigation. 

Ishtiaq has since taken legal action against Zoheb in Pakistan and he has announced he will sue him in the UK as well. A source close to Zoheb said he will consider his options if sued in the UK.