DOWN a dusty side road in the province of Punjab stands Shehr-e-Khamoshan, a new graveyard with freezers imported from Germany and a network of 22 video cameras that will allow relatives of the deceased to live-stream footage of funerals at the $1.5m facility. Attend a ceremony in person and there is little risk of heatstroke: dozens of fans hang from the ceiling of an arched prayer zone that is almost entirely open to the air.
The state-owned “model graveyard”, with its wide footpaths and neatly trimmed lawns, will serve the 11m-strong population of Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s richest and most populous province. Three more are under construction in the region. Across Pakistan burial grounds have struggled to cope with an urban population that has risen from 28% of the total in 1981 to 41% now (unsurprisingly land is scarce in cities). Burials have been banned in the overflowing public graveyards of the largest city, Karachi. There have been reports of policemen...Continue reading
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