Though the construction of the Havelian-Mansehra Section of Hazara Motorway is nearing completion almost two and a half years after its launch by the then premier, a large graveyard proposed for Mansehra city has been caught up in a dispute over its Rs200 million grant also announced by Nawaz Sharif during the April 2016 visit.

The federal government was quick to transfer the money to the district administration but ironically, it hasn’t been used yet as the tehsils governments of Mansehra, Balakot and Oghi laying claim to it continue to fight over the cemetery’s location.

The ultimate sufferer of the dispute is the common man, who is struggling to bury the dead in Mansehra city’s overcrowded graveyards.

Insisting the federal government’s grant can help put up a graveyard with space enough to meet the needs of over 0.5 million local population for two decades, the residents flayed the committee of the local PML-N leaders formed by the last federal government over failure to acquire land for the cemetery in the last more than two years.

“There’s literally no place left in our graveyards for burials and so, we place bodies in old, broken graves,” Razzaq Shah said. The resident said Mansehra city’s Kua Wali Ziarat, Khawari Adda, Mochi Baba Ziarat and Akbar Khan Road graveyards were filled to capacity, while small cemeteries spread across the town didn’t allow burial of unregistered people.

He also said the city had many burial grounds, which had long been managed and used by affluent families and tribes for their members only.

Another resident, Mohammad Jamil, also complained about the graveyard overcrowding and said since a powerful earthquake had massively damaged public property in the region and displaced thousands of families in 2005, land prices had surged considerably stopping tribes and community committees from acquiring land for developing graveyards over lack of resources.

The survivors of the 2005 earthquake from Balakot tehsil also complained about graveyard crowding crisis.

“We have to take bodies to native villages and hamlets for burial as this city has no graveyard,” said Sadaqat Ali, who had moved to Balakot from Jarad village along with hundreds of earthquake survivors.

Mr Ali blamed the local PML-N leadership for long delay in the land acquisition for Mansehra graveyard and regretted that the project hadn’t been executed despite release of the Rs200 million funds by the federal government two years ago.

“All former PML-N lawmakers, including son-in-law of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif retired captain Mohammad Safdar, former federal minister Sardar Mohammad Yousaf and MPA Sardar Zahoor, didn’t belong to Mansehra city and so, they didn’t ensure the utilisation of graveyard funds and thus, aggravating our misery,” he said.

The resident pushed the district administration for early land acquisition to put up the proposed cemetery to the relief of the people, who, he said, have been distressed by shortage of burying grounds.

The local government representatives in Mansehra’s urban union councils 1, 2, 3 and 4 insist that the former premier had announced the graveyard grant for their areas only and therefore, land for it should be acquired within the city.

Union Council 3 member Tanveer Khan Swati said if Mansehra city didn’t have land for graveyard, then the administration should equally distribute the Rs200 million grant to all four union councils to acquire land and build graveyards on their own.

He said he had learned about some people removing decomposed bodies from overcrowded graveyards to place their dead there.

“The cemetery overcapacity has become a crisis and if corrective measures aren’t taken without delay, the people will take to streets,” he said.

Khurram Khan Swati, who was tehsil nazim and member of committee before he resigned from the two offices to contest the July 25 general elections, said the tehsil governments of Balakot and Oghi wanted a share in the Rs200 million graveyard grant but that wasn’t possible as the prime minister’s directives clearly mentioned that the money was meant for land acquisition for graveyard in Mansehra city’s urban union councils.

“I was the only member of the land acquisition committee, who not only opposed the shifting of the cemetery funds to other parts of district but also flayed the unjustified delay in land acquisition,” he said.

Mr Swati said former premier Nawaz Sharif had announced Rs1 billion development package, Rs200 million for graveyard, and supply of water in 2016 when a group of independents agreed to join the PML-N to form government in Mansehra.

Mr Swati warned that he along with local residents would agitate if any attempt was made to use the graveyard grant in areas other than four union councils.

Mansehra deputy commissioner Mohammad Zubair, who assumed office of late, said members of the PML-N committee were in disagreement over whether graveyard should be put up within the city or outside and thus, causing long delay in the land’s purchase.

He said the district administration had imposed Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, banning the sale of 200 kanals of land in Sheikhabad on Mansehra city’s outskirts and two smaller pieces of land within the city but the ban would be lifted if consensus didn’t emerge on the graveyard land.

“We can’t impose the Land Acquisition Act sections 5 and 6 for being still in the process of develop consensus on acquisition of an appropriate piece of land,” he said.

Mr Zubair said being a district revenue collector, he could only impose Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act but it was the Tehsil Municipal Administration to determine where to acquire land for cemetery.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2018