MARDAN, Dec 7: The shortage of space in graveyards here has been creating problems for the residents of Mardan city to bury their dead.

The residents have expressed concern over the government’s apathy to take this issue seriously and start plans for acquiring land and constructing new graveyards in different parts of the district.

A survey of various parts of Mardan city revealed that there were more than a dozen graveyards in the city, but different tribes had converted them into their family graveyards and other people were often not allowed to bury their dead there. The cemented construction of graveyards by people is also causing shortage of land.

Talking to this correspondent, chief of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Maulana Samiul Haq said that unfortunately people had been giving preference to this temporary life of world over permanent life of Akhirat (life after death) and that was why they were constructing big plazas and other residential buildings, but did not care for the place to be buried.

Former deputy speaker Ikramullah Shahid said that encroachments and occupation of land by mafia were also the reasons for shrinking land of graveyards. He demanded of the government to carry out legislation in this regard and take action against encroachments.

The residents said that in most of the cases land for graveyards had been converted into commercial areas owing to construction of roads near them. He said that commercialisation had encouraged land mafia to grab parts of graveyards.

They said that the government had been constructing roads and huge buildings and offices, but did not acquire land for graveyards to facilitate masses.

The residents have demanded of the authorities to provide appropriate chunks of land for graveyards in different parts of the district to resolve the issue.