Let it be known to all those who are planning to commit suicide owing to despair over their incapability to afford their living expenses that even ‘dying expenses’ are not so easy to meet. So, have mercy on your heirs.
Pakistan Today has learnt that as many as 223 gravediggers at Miani Sahib Graveyard and 11 field security officers of the Auqaf Department leave no opportunity of fleecing citizens when they approach them for a burial.
The process of buying graves appears to be no different than the process of buying houses in the open market. Just like houses, the graves are overpriced, encroached upon and misappropriated, especially in the absence of a ‘sale deed’ – probably the only feature that differentiates grave-buying from house-buying.
There are more than half a million graves in the 1249-kanal graveyard which keeps on making room for more despite being full for ages.
However, the custodians of the ‘land of the dead’ make sure that they earn a handsome profit for accommodating the dead.
Sources told Pakistan Today that gravediggers are the front runners in this affair who overcharge citizens for a grave and then the money trickles upwards to Miani Sahib Graveyard Administrator Mohammad Idrees Shahzada and other Auqaf Department officials.
For the registration of a non-cemented grave, the gravediggers charge between Rs 5,000 and Rs 6,000 against the official rate of Rs 100. For the registration of a cemented grave, against an official fee of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 is charged.
The government demands Rs 100,000 for the construction of a dome over a grave, while the graveyard officials execute the task in not a penny less than Rs 150,000.
As far as the labour for digging a grave is concerned, the gravediggers charge Rs 15,000 and Rs 30,000 for a non-cemented and cemented grave respectively against the government approved charges of Rs 1,500 and Rs 5,000 respectively.
The fee for a cemented grave of the size 2x3x6 feet is Rs 20,000 while the ‘grim reapers’ at the graveyard charge Rs 50,000.
Moreover, against the approved rates of Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 for the construction of various types of cemented and non-cemented shades over a grave, the gravediggers do not hesitate in charging between Rs 40,000 and Rs 75,000.
Moreover, Pakistan Today has also found out that gravediggers first tear down the graves themselves and then when the heirs of the deceased find out about the dilapidated conditions of the grave, the gravediggers put the blame on stray dogs which often wander the vicinity.
Troubled at the sight of their beloved’s demolished grave, the guardians pay gravediggers hefty amounts for the repair. Against the government approved fee of Rs 3,000, gravediggers charge as much as Rs 10,000 for the repair.
DCO IN ACTION:
When the Lahore district coordination officer got to know about the situation at Miani Sahib Graveyard, he ordered an enquiry into the affair.
On the DCO’s directions, policemen in the garb of civilians staged a drama to catch the gravediggers red-handed. They laid up a man in a coffin, reached the graveyard in an ambulance and demanded a burial.
A gravedigger, at the sight of his potential client, came in action and initiated the dialogue with a lie.
“There is no room for a single grave in the entire premises. However, I can take care of the matter for you if you can pay Rs 12,000.”
The legal dramatists paid him the money and just when he was about to escort the men towards the grave which he had readied before hand, they lifted their cover and arrested the gravedigger. Soon after, the man was taken to the local police station and a case (FIR No. 297/384 – 420) was registered against him.
GRAVEDIGGERS AND THEIR STORIES:
Sources told Pakistan Today that the gravediggers had a number of stories for blinding the already mourning citizens who approach them for a grave. They make fake graves to show the absence of room for more, overstate grave charges and lament the unavailability of gravediggers and raw material for building a grave.
The citizens, failing to cross check the gravediggers’ claims, are left at the mercy of gravediggers who then charge them according to their whims.
A gravedigger, seeking anonymity, told Pakistan Today that they were forced to fleece citizens in a fear of losing their jobs. He claimed that Miani Sahib Graveyard Administrator Mohammad Idrees Shahzada demanded gravediggers pay him Rs 2,000 per grave if they wanted to keep their jobs.
He said that Idrees, who had earlier served at the DCO office for 25 years, had been ‘reigning’ at the graveyard for eight years and was involved in several malpractices. “No one can take possession of a grave in the graveyard without Idrees’s permission, which usually is granted at the sound of coppers,” he added.
Furthermore, he said that gravediggers operated in turns which have been assigned to them by Idrees. “Owing to the large number of gravediggers and especially Idrees’ favoritism, many of us have to wait for months before we are given an opportunity to deal a burial and earn a living. We have often tried to lodge a complaint against Idrees but in vain because he has connections with officials in the DCO office. He gets rid of the complaint letter before it reaches the DCO,” he said.
GRAVEYARD ADMINISTRATOR AND HIS STORIES:
Idrees, while talking to Pakistan Today, said that he always worked honestly and had issued warnings to the gravediggers several times for their malpractices. He said that he even fired 53 gravediggers involved in overcharging citizens for the burials. However, he said that the gravediggers had ‘political connections’ and were reinstated after being sacked.
He said he also demolished 275 fake graves that the gravediggers had made to con citizens by saying that the graveyard was full. He blamed ‘some men’ from his own department for launching propaganda against him. He assured that investigations were in process and facts will soon be made public.
