Govt to allow burials at new graveyard
A man reads a prayer on a phone as he sits at Sakhi Hassan Graveyard, which is filled with plants seeded by relatives of the dead, in Karachi, July 12, 2022. REUTERS
In a bid to address the garrison city’s longstanding problem of shortage of space for burying the dead, authorities have decided to accommodate fresh requests for burials at a newly established graveyard from next month.
Shortage of space in existing graveyards of the city has irked the residents for long. The newly established 1000-kanal graveyard is equipped with all essential facilities. Surveys suggest almost all of Rawalpindi’s graveyards are short on space to accommodate fresh requests to bury the dead.
Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has sought a formal summary in this regard by the first week of the next month while an important meeting has also been convened in the same week to review the matter.
The new graveyard is being built in Rakh Dhamiyal area of Rawalpindi while construction of an ablution spot and crematorium has already been completed.
As part of fresh measures, five large busses [coffin carriers] will be provided to Rawalpindi Metropolitan Corporation (RMC) to transport the bodies to the cemetery. An amount of Rs4 billion is already available in the RMC’s account for the purchase of more buses and other facilities.
With the help of these busses, dead bodies from Rawalpindi city and Cantt will be brought free of charge to the new cemetery for burial. The new graveyard has more than 3,000 kanals of adjoining land for further expansion in the future.
There are more than 56 small and large graveyards in the city and Cantt, but none of them has the capacity for new graves. However, cemeteries that have the capacity for fresh burials charge exorbitant rates, forcing bereaved families to face a lot of difficulties in the search for graves for which they are charged Rs12,000 to Rs20,000 per grave.
The issue had become so dire that grave diggers were made to dig new graves over unattended ones to accommodate requests that cannot be turned down. Successive governments pledged to address the civic issue in the past but no promise was kept.
Former federal parliamentary secretary Sheikh Rashid Shafiq told The Express Tribune that Punjab CM has accepted their request as this particular graveyard was approved by the incumbent government. Bereaved families can avail facilities through a phone call free of charge, he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 23rd, 2022.