The 16 graveyards in the city and 10 in the cantonment areas are left with no space but the gravediggers still make room for the new burials by altering the old graves after getting bribe.

The shortage of space in the graveyards has become a big issue but the government seems not interested in allocating space for the graveyards.

All the main graveyards, including Ratta Amral, Pirwadhai, Eidgah, Shan Diyan Talian, Kuri Road, Dhoke Khaba, Dhoke Illahi Buksh, Dhoke Kashmirian, Chah Sultan, Malikan Da Kabristan and the one near Committee Chowk, have become short of space.

However, the gravediggers were allegedly making new graves on the unattended ones after taking bribe.

A few years back, the government allocated land for a new graveyard at Rakh Dhamial but people avoid burying their relatives there as it is away from the city limits.

The residents said the most affected graveyards were the ones at Dhoke Ratta and Pirwadhai.

The management committees of the graveyards have encroached on the nullah passing through the area but during the monsoon floodwater destroyed the new graves.

“I had to pay Rs8,000 to the Gorkan to bury the body of my father in Pirwadhai graveyard as my grandfather and grandmother were also laid to rest there,” said Mohammad Nasir, a resident of Bagh Sardaran. He said the management committee had fixed the fee at Rs6,000 per grave but after paying extra money to the Gorkan he was allotted a space for the burial of his father.”

When asked did he know that the space had been arranged on an old unattended grave, he said: “It was not a matter of concern for us as we were in a hurry to get the grave prepared.”

Yasir Saleem, a resident of Mohanpura, added: “It was the will of my mother to bury her in that graveyard so we paid to the Gorkan for the space. But we ensured that it was not far away from my father’s grave.”

He said he had no time to go to the new graveyard outside the city limits and preferred to have the graves of their near and dear ones near his house.

On the other hand, the gravediggers at Dhoke Ratta and Pirwadhai rejected the allegations of taking bribes.

“We managed to find space around old graves as people mostly occupied the extra land for sitting arrangements or offering prayers,” said Mohammad Javed, a Gorkan at Dhoke Ratta.

“We just help the people find extra land otherwise we never alter the old and unattended graves,” he said and added that they were not involved in such crimes.

Salamat Ali, a Gorkan at Pirwadhai graveyard, said it was the oldest graveyard and all the graves there were still intact.

“It is an allegation that the gravediggers alter old graves,” he said.

However, he admitted that there was no space available for the new graves.

“The management committee encroached some of the land along Leh Nullah,” he revealed.

The city district government and town municipal administration have failed to properly manage the 1,000 kanals of land in Rakh Dhamial about 20 kilometres away from the city.

The land was allocated for the graveyard during the tenure of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 1997.

There is also shortage of burial space in the graveyards of cantonment areas not only due to limited space but also because of lack of proper space planning and maintenance by the Rawalpindi and Chaklala cantonment boards.

Shah Payara has no proper burial site. Karbala and other graveyards in the cantonment are also in pathetic conditions.

The residents of the cantonment area criticised the cantonment board for not allocating new space for graveyards and constructing boundary walls around the existing ones.

PML-N city president Sardar Naseem said there was no vacant space available for the establishment of new graveyards.

“To cope with the situation, the provincial government launched an aggressive campaign to remove encroachments around the existing graveyards,” he said.

“Rakh Dhamial graveyard is far away from the city. The government is planning to create new space around the existing graveyards and soon it will buy some space for this purpose,” he said.

PTI Punjab vice-president and former district nazim Rawalpindi Raja Tariq Mehboob Kiani said the government should utilise the land at Rakh Dhamial for the graveyard.

“The provincial government should construct a road from Adiala Road to Rakh Dhamial and manage the graveyard on the pattern of the Capital Development Authority (CDA),” he said.

He said funeral buses should be provided to union councils so the people can go to the graveyard.

Former nazim Rawal Town and Awami Muslim League leader Sheikh Rashid Shafique said there was an acute shortage of graveyards in the city, making the burial of the dead a great problem for the bereaved families.

“Seven years back, the then railway minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed got a no-objection certificate from the interior ministry to construct a new graveyard near Fauji Colony at I. J. Principal Road,” he said.

The project was stopped after the formation of the PML-N government in Punjab in 2008, he added.