RAWALPINDI: To solve Rawalpindi’s urgent graveyard shortage problem, Pakistan Sweet Home has launched a new project to provide all the facilities needed to prepare graves, provide shrouds, transport the dead to the cemetery, and bury them.
The “Safar-e-Akhrat” project wants to make all the important services free for everyone.
The Punjab government built a graveyard on 1000 kanals of land in Rakh Dhamyal, which is the background of this project. In the 54 oldest cemeteries in Rawalpindi city and cantonment areas, there was no more room for new graves, so this move was made. Five hundred kanals of land have been set aside for Rawalpindi city, two hundred kanals for Rawalpindi and Chaklala Cantt, and one hundred kanals for the Christian population. There are also 200 kanals of land set aside in the cemetery for funeral prayers, mortuary services, parking, and open areas.
But because the Shehr-e-Khamoshan Authority is said to have been careless, it was hard to get this cemetery fully working like the model graveyard in Lahore. Because of this delay, the “gravedigger mafia” took advantage of the situation in old cemeteries by tearing down old, decaying graves at night and selling new graves for ridiculously high prices, between thirty and forty thousand rupees.
At Rakh Dhamyal Cemetery, on the other hand, the city government of Rawalpindi has set a fixed rate of five thousand rupees for preparing graves and providing the necessary tools.
Both the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation and the Cantonment Board only have one bus, which shows that the area needs better transportation options.
During his visit to the cemetery on November 28, 2023, Station Commander Brigadier Ahmad Nawaz told the cantonment office to set up a cemetery committee and oversee the gravediggers. Even so, these orders have not been carried out yet, and the administrative takeover of 200 kanals of land for the cantonment has not happened after five months. Because of this, Zamurad Khan, who runs Pakistan Sweet Home, started the “Safr-e-Akhrat” project, which will build new graves at Rakh Dhamyal Cemetery.
The office of the Municipal Corporation has been turned into an office for managing this project. The project will start soon, and Pakistan Sweet Home will be donating vehicles as part of the effort.
The “Safr-e-Akhrat” project will give poor and needy people free shrouds, grave preparation and places to be buried. This is in line with the goal of making necessary services available to everyone without cost. It is interesting to know that Mian Shehbaz Sharif, when he was chief minister of Punjab, set aside Rs200 million in the 2017/18 budget to build a model graveyard on 1,000 kanals of land in Rakh Dhamyal.
But because of delays in the project, these funds may not be able to be used anymore.
