People are facing a severe problem in burying their loved ones, as all graveyards in the garrison city have run out of space.
On August 23, Punjab Law Minister Muhammad Basharat Raja, Provincial Minister for Literacy Raja Rashid Hafeez MPA Umar Tanveer Butt announced to make Dhamial Rakh cemetery functional soon.
Currently, all 54 graveyards in the Rawalpindi city and the cantonment are filled to the capacity. The project of establishing a new graveyard on a 2,000-kanal of land in Dhamyal Rakh has been pending for the last 18 years.
Former Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had earmarked Rs300 million in the year 2017-18 to make the Dhamyal Rakh graveyard functional under the Graveyard Authority. However, no substantial progress has been made since then.
Work on the boundary wall of the Dhamial Rakh graveyard and the ablution site has been completed at a cost of Rs20 million while two buses and three ambulances have also been arranged.
However, no gravediggers have been hired for the graveyard and a mortuary is also missing.
Read New graveyard in the offing for capital
Currently, all cemeteries in the city have fallen into the hands of the graveyard mafia who charge as much as up to Rs34,000 for digging a grave.
The graves that were not visited by families were being demolished by these people to build a new one.
In this regard, ex-Naib Nazim of Ratta Amral Nasir Mir said that finding a grave has become problematic for the citizens of Rawalpindi. “It is a strenuous task for getting a grave for the already bereaved family,” he added.
Mir said that the over two-century-old Ratta Amral cemetery has no space left but still new graves were being dug there by the gravediggers’ mafia by destroying the old ones.
He said that the bereaved families were compelled to pay up to Rs30,000 to bury their loved ones.
A social activist from the Hukumdad neighbourhood, Zaheer Awan, said a grave in the Malkan Wala graveyard is available in up to Rs40,000 while no space was available in the Dhok Khabba graveyard.
A citizen, Muhammad Ahmed, whose father died two days and was buried in the Shah Pyare graveyard, said that “it is not just about the cost we paid but only we know how hard it is to get a grave”.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 18th, 2021.
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