Dearness doesnt leave even the dead

LAHORE The continuously spiralling inflation in the country has made it very costly for the poor to bury their dead. The cost of everything has gone so up that the common man remains drenched in problems from birth to death in between passing the days of a miserable life and unbearable burden of everything which he needs to sustain himself. It is a pity that for the poor even space has shortened lay low. And such scenes are quite visible in old Miani Sahib graveyard, which is about 1000 years old. The Miani Sahib graveyard occupies near about 1,264 kanals of land. Actually it was set up in the Mughal regime. While Miani Sahib Graveyard Committee, which was constituted in 1962 looks after it. This scribe visited Miani Sahib graveyard on Wednesday and talked about the present situation of the graveyard with a good number of gravediggers and also the administrator of the graveyard Mohammad Idrees Shahzada and the security officer Bashir Ahmad. According to the administrator Idrees Shahzada, the gravediggers, who dig average 22 graves every day are now facing difficulties to find the space for further graves as more than 300,000 graves have occupied 1,264 kanals area of the oldest graveyard. Even we have 400 year old graves here in this graveyard, he confessed. Now the place has been reduced as the population of the city has been rapidly increasing day by day. The price of a burial land in Miani Sahib has inflated due to lack of space there . According to a signboard pasted at Miani Sahib, a bricked-grave of an adult costs Rs 4,500, while an un-bricked grave costs Rs 1,500. When this scribe talked with many gravediggers about the space, they said, according to their informations no further space was available even in Lahores other graveyards like Shadman graveyard, Masoomia graveyard of Mian Munshi Hospital, Kasoorpura graveyard and Goshala graveyard in Sandha. Now we have to dig new graves by opening the unattended graves, which have not been attended for long. According to the administrator Idrees Shahzada, we have divided 1,264 kanals area of the graveyard into seven blocks which include Pir Bahawal Sher Road, Nayya Mozang, Mozang Chungi and Bahawalpur Road. But we have three big areas which are Sirki Banda, Barra Makkan and Dhayya Mosha. He said we have near about 22 ditches in the Miani Sahib graveyard which consists of many canals and have suggested, if the city government fill them with mud then the place for the Lahoriites could be created for further graves, as we are facing the shortage of the space here. While sharing his idea, the security officer of Miani Sahib graveyard Bashir Ahmad said at the Bahawalpur Road we have a very large ditch near the shrine of Wasif Ali Wasif, which consists of many canals of area, if this is filled with mud, then the space for further graves could be created. Besides when rains come this ditch fills with water due to which the graves are severely damaged. He said we severely needed more new places for the graveyards. Besides there should not be reservations for the graves so that the people do not face difficulty to bury their dear ones, he stressed. Bashir Ahmad said earlier, the philanthropists used to donate land for the graveyards, but now they have stopped this practice because of the inflated rates of the lands. According to him all big and small graveyards of the Lahore were full. Some of the gravediggers said that the Miani Sahib graveyard is the haven for the addicts and the absconders. The City District Government should start an operation to clean it from such evildoers, while the maintenance of security system is very essential to curb the crime in the graveyard. The gravediggers collectively said that the govt should start the new phases of Miani Sahib graveyard to address the land shortage problem. They said earlier, different phases of the Miani Sahib graveyards were under consideration of the City District Government but they could not materialised it. They said the procedures of the burials of the dead should be simplified for the poor masses.