Grave concerns in DHA

The Defence Housing Authority (DHA) has not yet responded to a letter written to it by the Defence Residents’ Association (DRA) a few months ago regarding the housing authority’s strict graveyard rules, a DRA member told Daily Times on Sunday.

Many DHA residents have faced problems burying their relatives at the DHA graveyard because the housing authority did not allow burying some of them. The authority has, in some cases, barred some family members from being buried at the graveyard while allowing some others though all of them were living in the same house.

In a recent incident, a DHA resident had been denied permission to bury his two-month-old grandson at the graveyard. The baby had to be buried at a graveyard outside the DHA.

Sheikh Ahad Khawaja, a DHA resident, told Daily Times that though he had lived in the DHA for many years, he had also faced burial problems. He said that recently, his son, daughter-in-law and daughter had died in a road accident. He said that although all of them had been living in the DHA, the authority did not allow him to bury his daughter-in-law at the graveyard. He said that when he argued with them, they told him that if his daughter married outside the DHA, they would not allow her in-laws to be buried at the DHA graveyard.

Manzoor Saeed, who lives in a rented house in the DHA, said his son worked in Islamabad and died there. He said that he had misplaced his rental deed and was not allowed to bury his son at the graveyard. He said he had to bury his son at the Murrian graveyard in Garden Town.

DHA spokesman Tajammul Hussain said the authority did not plan to change the rules anytime soon. He said another graveyard was being planned in Y-block of Phase 7. He said the new graveyard would be a bigger one and would touch Hadiara drain and the BRB canal. He said the authority was working on uploading the new graveyard on its website so that people living abroad could see the graves of their loved ones.

Source: Daily Times