LAHORE: Thousands of residents in the provincial capital have been facing problems with the burial of their relatives due to lack of designated graveyards for their localities, Pakistan Today observed on Tuesday.
In metropolis, where over growth in population has caused many different issues, residents continue to suffer at the time of burial of their loved ones.
The residents of old localities had buried their relatives in the graveyards nearby them which were also years old. The natives of such areas can still manage to bury the dead bodies of their relatives but the problem has become worse for those who have shifted to new societies, particularly those unapproved by Lahore Development Authority (LDA).
According to LDA’s rules, no society can be approved unless it allocates a sufficient part of land for a graveyard. However, there are several localities, administrated by Town Municipal Administration (TMA), who have their own designated graveyards. Many of such localities now fall under LDA.
Many residents of such localities complained that they no proper graveyard has been designated for their areas. Talking to Pakistan Today, they said that they often have to face problem with the burial of their relatives as the administrators of the local graveyard do not grant them permission to bury their relatives in that graveyard.
A resident of Education Town, Umar Mustafa said that his father passed away a few days ago and they faced a lot of problem at the time of burial.
“We used to bury our loved ones in a nearby graveyard in Kamran Block but now the administration there has imposed restriction on the residents of other areas,” he said, adding that after a lot of effort they managed to get permission to bury their father in the said graveyard.
When asked that why he did not prefer to bury his father in the recently developed graveyard Shehr-e-Khamoshan, he said that his family wanted to bury his father in the local graveyard as many of his deceased relatives were buried in that graveyard.
Besides Education Town, residents of nearby societies and towns like Waris Colony, Mustafa Town and Azam Garden are also facing the same problem as they do not have designated graveyards in their areas.
Moreover, a similar situation is being faced by the residents of well off societies where the graveyard administration allows only the owners of homes in those societies to bury their deceased.
“I had to take the dead body of my father to my native hometown after the administration of the local graveyard refused to allow me to bury him there,” said a resident of Defence who was living there on rent. He said that the situation was difficult for his family.
Talking to Pakistan Today, an LDA spokesman said that to deal with such problems, Punjab government has established a modern graveyard but resident still do not prefer to bury their relatives there.
“LDA, while giving approval to a new housing society, focuses on the availability of a graveyard and this is one of the reasons that LDA is not giving approval to many housing societies,” he added.