Residents denied burial spaces

Lahore sees surge in low-cost housing, providing affordable plots amid inflation challenges

LAHORE:

The obligation of burying a beloved family member is a harrowing experience for all grieving families, more so for the residents of illegal housing societies, who in the absence of burial grounds, have to frantically search graveyards in the hopes of finally laying to rest their deceased members.

During the past few years, Lahore has witnessed a drastic proliferation in the construction of low-cost housing schemes, offering empty plots at affordable rates to the inflation battered populace. However, despite their affordability and popularity, a large number of the newly constructed housing schemes fail to provide burial spaces to their residents, who have to endlessly negotiate with private cemetery owners before being allowed to bury their loved ones.

Bilal Ahmad, a resident of a private housing society located near the border village of Manawan, was unable to find any burial space within his locality for burying his deceased father. “I was already in a state of deep shock after my father’s sudden death. But my anxieties were multiplied when I was denied burial space by the private cemetery’s owners, who asked me to obtain permission from the housing society’s administration,” recalled Bilal, who was forced to wait several hours with his father’s coffin before the cemetery owners approved the burial.

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Similar circumstances frequently befall those residing in other unregistered housing schemes. While burials are not a problem in housing schemes with cemeteries built on government land, they are a challenge for most residents who have to seek permission for burying their deceased at burial spaces collectively purchased by private owners, in the absence of free cemeteries provided by the housing society.

“There are only two cemeteries in my area. One is government owned and is open to all citizens but the other is the joint private ownership of villagers, who do not allow unknown people to bury their deceased,” said Rashid Karamat Butt, former Chairman of a local rural union council in Lahore.

According to statistics obtained by The Express Tribune from the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) for the year 2021, approximately 40 per cent of 603 housing schemes across Lahore are illegal, and apart from violating several other ordinances, these societies do not allocate land for a cemetery, despite many showing a cemetery’s outline in the map of their scheme submitted to the LDA.

“There is a network of housing societies in the city which are defrauding the public. They do not have the approval of the Metropolitan Corporation Lahore or the LDA. They convince real estate clients that a cemetery exists in their societies by showing them a fake map or improvising that the cemetery of a nearby area is their own.

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Therefore, people must be discerning when buying property in these societies,” alarmed Mian Habibur Rahman, a renowned builder in Lahore, who further claimed that most illegal societies had no space for parks or schools either.

Speaking to The Express Tribune on the matter, a spokesperson for the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) maintained that housing schemes without cemeteries are illegal and would not be approved by the Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA).

“A society built on a plot of land measuring 100 kanals or more, must set aside two per cent of the total area for a cemetery in accordance with regulations of the LDA and TMA. If a society is constructed on land fewer than 100 kanals, there is no need to set aside space for a cemetery,” added the source.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 18^th, 2023.