Sindh govt allocates land for establishment of two new graveyards in Karachi

KARACHI: The Sindh government on Tuesday approved a Sindh Manzil Sukoon Authority Bill 2021 to establish new graveyards in Karachi.

The approval was given in the Sindh cabinet meeting held in the megacity, presided over by Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah. The provincial government also allocated lands for setting up two new graveyards in the city.

The Sindh Chief Minister directed all the divisional commissioners to scrutinize all the domiciles/PRC certificates issued in all the districts during the last three years and report him within 60 days so that decision in the misuse of domicile/PRC could be taken accordingly and to stop such practice for good.

He also directed the chief secretary to fix the responsibility on the officers/officials involved in issuing fake domiciles/PRC certificates so that exemplary punishments could be awarded to them. The meeting was attended by all the ministers, advisors and special assistants, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, Advocate General Sindh Salman Talibuddin and other concerned officers.

The cabinet raised the issue of misuse of Sindh domicile/PRC certificates by non-residents of the province for obtaining admission in educational institutes and government jobs, both federal and provincial, against the quota reserved for residents of the province.

The chief minister had constituted a committee under the Senior Member Board of Revenue (SMBR) in May 2020 to probe into the misuse of domicile/PRC certificates. The committee probed into the process of issuance of domicile/PRC in four districts- Larkana, Kashmore-Kandhkot, Ghotki and Jamshoro and submitted a report. According to the report 423 cases were examined, of them 154 were declared suspicious in four districts on various grounds.

ACS Home Qazi Shahid Pervez briefing the cabinet said that the deputy commissioners have delegated the responsibility of issuing domicile/PRC certificates to ADCs /ACs and no field enquiry was being conducted. He said that the processing/ approval sheet showed a ‘mechanical’ process, without application of mind, by the concerned staff/ authority.

It was pointed out that a private company was tasked to do the important work of domicile/PRC without adequate checks and balances. The important documents like the affidavit were not administered properly and many were found defective. Most of the required documents required as ‘proof of residence’ were not attested / verified.

Sindh Chief Minister, after thorough discussion with the cabinet members, said that the Domicile Certificate was wrongly used as a proof for permanent residence at a particular place. He added that under Pakistan Citizenship Act, 1951, domicile was the certificate of citizenship of Pakistan and did not limit it to any province or a particular place.

Similarly, Pakistan Citizenship Rules, 1952 declares it for Permanent Residence in Pakistan the Permanent Residence Certificate (PRC) is a document of residence in a particular area.

Shah, with the approval of the cabinet, constituted a committee to review the rules of domicile and PRC and suggest amendments.

The committee comprises Minister Revenue Makhdoom Mahboob, Minister Irrigation Jam Khan Shoro, Advisor Law Murtaza Wahab and Senior Member Board of Revenue.

The chief minister directed all the divisional commissioners to conduct a detailed scrutiny of the domiciles/PRCs issued in their districts during the last three years and submit a report.

Meanwhile, the chief minister directed the IT department to develop a database of the domiciles/PRCs.

However, the school education department presented a `School Clustering policy’ under which a group of geographically neighbouring interconnected schools working in a certain area and characterized by common activities would be clustered. Minister of Education Sardar Shah said that in Sindh the schools were widespread in different categories such as Primary, Middle, Elementary, High & Higher Secondary schools.

Most of the primary schools in rural areas were vulnerable, isolated two-room-one-teacher schools. He added that there was a need of a mechanism to strengthen these isolated schools through clustering.

Each cluster will have one main school called Hub School; the remaining schools are grouped with the hub of the cluster. The policy is originally aimed at effectively addressing issues of isolation of rural schools due to large distances, non-availability of teachers, inadequate resources and non-availability of opportunities of professional development.

The cabinet approved the proposal and the chief minister directed the education department to work out a detailed survey of the children presently out of school and take measures to bring them back to school.

The cabinet also approved an `Up-gradation’ policy of schools from Primary to Elementary’. Under the policy, the school located in rural area with an enrolment of 20 boys in class-V and have a`catchment area schools’ with an enrolment of 30 boys in class-V and have no post-primary school within three kilometres would qualify to be upgraded.

The girls primary school with an enrolment of 15 girls in class-V should be upgraded if it has the catchment area schools of more students and has no other post-primary girls school within a distance of two kilometres. In urban areas, the up-gradation of a Primary boys’ school to Elementary School would have the criteria of enrolment of 20 boys in class V, and 30 boys in the catchment area school with no post-primary school in vicinity.

The criteria for upgrading of girls primary school has been fixed at 15 girls in class V and 30 in the catchment area schools. A similar criterion for upgrading from elementary to middle school and to high school was also approved.

However, the Sindh cabinet, after considerable deliberations, approved establishment of Sindh Manzil-e-Sukoon Authority law with the objective to establish, manage and regulate model cemeteries or graveyards and crematoriums. It would also provide to the public cemetery services, funeral, crematory, transfer services and other related services.

Advisor Law Murtaza Wahab said that there were innumerable historical and public graveyards in the entire province. He said that some of these historical graveyards were being looked after by various provincial departments, local government at UC level, communities, societies and others. He said majority of public graveyards were running out of space and they were in a neglected state. He said that there are 203 graveyards in Karachi, of them 184 are for the Muslims and 19 for non-Muslims.

Murtaza Wahab said that 90 graveyards were under the control of local government, 106 by societies such as DHA, PQA, CAA and Pakistan steel mills. He added that seven graveyards were under the control of cantonment boards and six graveyards were banned for burial due to lack of space.

The chief minister said that according to a study, the death ratio in Pakistan was 6.89 per 1000. The estimated requirement for new graves per year was 10,000 to 12,000. He added that more or less the same requirement could be assumed in other parts of the province.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021