Last rites: No space for the dead in Rawalpindi

Private graveyards short on space, while public facility remains inaccessible due to lack of adequate transport.

RAWALPINDI:

In a city with barely enough space for the living, where do the dead go?

The issue of space in the ever-growing city of Rawalpindi is not being felt just by the living populace. The problem of burying the dead has become a serious cause for concern as there are no graveyards in the urban areas controlled by the district government.

The only graveyard planned and completed in 1997 near Dhamial Village, some 25 kilometres away from the city, is yet to become the first choice for the people due to its inaccessibility. The residents in the urban areas, on the other hand, are facing shortage of space, as almost all the burial grounds are either filled to capacity or reserved in advance. The few spaces still available need to be paid for.

Usman Ali, a resident of Ratta Amral, a locality of the old city, said that most graveyards were established by the local inhabitants and are controlled by local mohalla (neighbour) committees. “The committees only allow burial to those who pay for the upkeep of the graveyards,” he said.

With most empty spaces reserved by the old residents for future burials, the newcomers have to either pay or take their dead to their native areas, Ali said.

There are four major graveyards in the city, Rata, Pirwadhai, Eidgah and Dhoke Munshi. All of them are overcrowded and are short on necessary facilities such as a place for funeral prayers and making ablution, said Raja Ghufran, who has been living at Dhoke Kala Khan on Murree Road for the last 30 years.

The old residents are fully aware of the problem. They know that they have to keep the land for imminent burials. “They do not allow strangers to bury their dead in these reserved lands,” he added.

Muhammad Anas Khan, who lives on Chakri Road, said, “Majority of the settlers in Rawalpindi hail from Azad Kashmir, Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa and Hazara and it is not easy for them to take the dead bodies to their natives areas. So they purchase land here.”

The public graveyard near Dhamial Village was set up back in 1997, when Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was in power. Qazi Sultan Ahmed, member of the central executive committee of PPP and an old resident of the city, said that the dead cannot be taken to the public graveyard for the want of transportation.

An official of Rawal Town administration said the town had only two buses that can be hired for burial purposes. The Dhamial graveyard is far off and people prefer not to take the dead to the facility, he added.

Rawalpindi Commissioner Zahid Saeed said that reserving land for a graveyard near the city was not viable because there was not enough space.

He added, “The graveyard near Dhamial is fully developed. Some vegetation has grown there as no burials have taken place in the cemetery. It has a proper place to offer funeral prayers and adequate water is available there.”

When asked about the shortage of transport, the commissioner said that they would take “immediate steps” to ensure the availability of cheap burial service system in the city.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2011.