KARACHI’S population has increased so exponentially that it’s become extremely difficult to ascertain how many people reside in the city. This has created problems of diverse nature, one of which is that the number of graveyards in the city doesn’t seem to be sufficient or in proportion to the mammoth population and its need to bury those who die. But this issue hasn’t reared its head in recent times. On March 17, 1975, a survey published in this newspaper revealed that only a little more than 500 acres of land was available in Karachi to develop graveyards as against an estimated requirement of 2,201 acres over the next five decades. The (then) existing 94 cemeteries in the city covered a total of 1,846.17 acres out of which 1,300.17 acres had already been utilised — overfilled in some cases. Against the 73 graveyards in the newly developed schemes and townships, there were 18 major ones in the old city. The present available sites lay well outside the five-mile radius of the old part of Karachi, while certain graveyards such as Mewa Shah were filling up fast. The few small burial grounds developed after independence in Liaquatabad, Paposhnagar, Gulshan-i-Iqbal and Federal B Area were also getting congested.

The nature of the above-mentioned issue was reemphasised on March 20 when the health department of the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) released a report on the control of communicable diseases, which said hydrophobia, a fatal disease caused by dog-bite, had claimed 18 lives in the city in the last six months. Eleven out of the 18 cases took place in neighbourhoods outside of KMC limits and under the jurisdiction of other local bodies. Although during three general and various local campaigns against pye-dogs that lasted for five months from July 1, 1974, 7,920 dogs had been killed, the report added, their eradication was not possible without the active cooperation of the 11 local bodies, cantonment boards, housing societies, the Karachi Development Authority (KDA), the Railways, SITE, the central Public Works Department (PWD) and the Landhi-Korangi Municipal Committee (L-KMC). The KMC, however, had supplied anti-rabies vaccines to its hospitals and dispensaries for the first time and all 1,850 dog-bite victims had received the vaccines.

Speaking of the municipal cooperation, something rather peculiar happened to its staff that week which the media highlighted on March 18. Ten members of the demolition squad of the KMC who had gone to remove an unauthorised structure in Bahadurabad were instead taken to the area police station and were detained for some hours. The men, led by a building inspector, were busy clearing the illegal structure on the second floor of a bungalow belonging to a retired police officer when some policemen arrived on the scene. They thought the law enforcers had come to provide protection to them but were shocked when they were escorted to the station. The 11th member of the squad, who was a bit late in reaching the place of duty, confronted the angry landlord. He came back running and reported the matter to his superiors. Finally, the KMC administrator talked with the higher authorities and got the 10 men released.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2025