Daily Times

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) will hear today a petition calling on the provincial government to create a crematory ground for the province’s 60,000 Sikhs.

The petition challenges that the KP government had laid out Rs. 30 million for a Sikh crematory ground and for a cemetery for Christians, but the Department of Auqaf and Religious Affairs was delaying disbursing and utilising these funds.

The petitioner also further highlights that Sikhs are forced to take the dead bodies of their deceased all the way to Attock because of the lack of a crematory ground, which poses a significant financial burden to the minority community.

The case also claims that transporting bodies to Attock is made all the more difficult by a lack of ambulance services provided to Sikhs.

The petition, thus, calls upon the government to create a crematory ground for the community, and to provide them with an ambulance service.

The issue of a lack of a crematory ground has been plaguing Sikhs and Hindus for a while, with the Chairperson of the Sikh Community in Pakistan, Radesh Singh, claiming that the KP government last year gave Rs. 30 million for developing the ground.

The government, however, added the caveat that the money be used to buy land costing Rs.100,000 per marla, with Singh adding that land at this price does not exist in Peshawar.