Daily Times

KARACHI: There is no official record of number of burials on daily basis of at least 155 graveyards in Karachi, officials of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) revealed.

Only 51 graveyards which are maintaining records are registered with a section in Municipal Services Department of KMC.

The non-registered graveyards have been earmarked at different places in city by private welfare bodies, Pakistan Railway, Cantonment Boards, Army, Navy, Air Force, Civil Aviation, Defence Housing Authority, Port Qasim, Pakistan Steel Mills, societies, baradaries and Karachi Development Authority without having the permission of KMC.

“There is a section in KMC which is responsible for registration and having records of burials”, officials added.

For the last 30 years no new land has been allotted for graveyards by the Board of Revenue as an estimated of 9,000 graves are required in a year’s period on average. No any master plan has also been prepared in this regard yet .

During the period of Naimatullah Khan, the then City Nazim of City District Government Karachi, By-laws for graveyards had been laid down to keep record of burials on daily basis.

The by-laws were also made for the registration of number of gravediggers, gardeners and other staff at every graveyard.

Record book for registration of deceased person with details and prescribed fee for a grave had also been placed in the by-laws.

Only one out of 19 Christian cemeteries is registered at graveyard department in Municipal Services department of KMC.

There is only one cemetery of Jews that exists at Mewa Shah Graveyard and has been kept working without any registration at KMC.

Vadeyee Hussain graveyard on Super Highway is also being maintained without permission of KMC. However it is a planned graveyard and can be monitored through digital devices and Google mapping.

Sindh Building Control Authority has yet to prepare any plans for graveyard in city.

Due to this mismanagement , the maintaining of records, double issuance of death certificates is a regular practice by union councils and KMC .

The Edhi Trust graveyard on Hub River Road is also not listed on the official record of KMC.

According to by-laws, there is a complete ban on burial in houses, open places, public places, masajids and public known places, an official informed.

There is also a ban on the exhuming of bodies by any private of government official until and unless it is inevitable to do such an act for examination of body on the orders of court of law and in the presence of judicial member of the government, according to laid down laws in the graveyard affairs document of KMC.

It is pertinent to mention here that around 1979, after local bodies election in Sindh including Karachi, members of civil society and religious groups had demanded the KMC to make laws for maintaining proper record of burials.

The by laws were later prepared in six years of time and almost fourteen years have gone without following a single clause of these laws.

Now on the directives of Waseem Akhtar, Mayor Karachi concerned department of entity has written letters to Commissioner, deputies and additional deputies to take appropriate measures in order to ensure application of the by laws by the graveyards staff.

The Mayor has directed the graveyard department to submit its proposals for bringing improvement in existing KMC graveyards in the city and to streamline the working of this department.

He said such a mechanism should be worked out for city graveyards that all such elements are discouraged and a proper system to be installed in KMC.