M. H. Panhwar the ‘one-man’ Sindhologist passes away

Staff Report

KARACHI : Scholar, agriculturalist and water expert Muhammad Hussain Panhwar passed away Saturday at his residence in Latifabad, Hyderabad at the age of 82, PPI reported Sunday.

“Five minutes before his death he was working on a chart of climate changes in Sindh,” said his wife Farzana while talking to Daily Times Sunday. “He was working manually, not on the computer. He finished his work and died within five minutes.”

Panhwar, born on December 25, 1925, was an expert in environment, history, archaeology, anthropology, historical geography and geology. After acquiring a BS in mechanical engineering (1949) and an MS in Agriculture Engineering (1953), Panhwar specialized in ground water development, earth moving, agricultural machinery, water logging, salinity control drainage, and agriculture.

He worked with the governments of Sindh and West Pakistan as an agricultural engineer for four years and also worked as a superintending engineer for Sindh and Baluchistan for 12 years up to end 1969. From 1970 to date he was running a consulting company specializing in irrigation, water logging, drainage, agriculture, scientific equipment, and horticulture. He wrote 10 books on ground water in Sindh and many articles on the Thar and Kohistan deserts.

In 1964, he established a horticulture farm specializing in fruit crops. This was later converted into a research farm in 1985 for introducing new fruit crops suited to Sindh’s climate, and which developed many new varieties of fruit crops, including, 17 types of mango, six types of lychee, and many others. He authored 36 books on culture and fruit crop post-harvesting. Many of them are not printed yet.

Considered a one-man ‘Sindhologist’, his hobby was the study of Sindh, and he published more than 500 pages on various aspects of Sindh. Six more books on Sindh are also ready in press. His personal library has some 50,000 non-fictional books almost equally divided on Sindh, horticulture, engineering, and the environment.

He lived at 157-C, Unit No.2, Latifabad, and ran his consultancy and research work from an office at 54-D, Block-9, Clifton , Karachi , Pakistan . In June 2003 Panhwar established a trust to undertake social work in Sindh and transferred his home, office, farm, and other property to its name.

He was honored with a number of awards including a medal from Sindh University in 1949 for securing the first number in first class in B.E. (Mech. and Elec.). He was awarded the Sitara-e-Imtiaz by the President of Pakistan in 1992 for outstanding work in engineering and agriculture.

His publications include Water Requirements of the Riverain Area of Sindh, Sustainable Methods as Applied to Raising Fruit Crops, An Illustrated Historical Atlas of the Soomra Kingdom of Sindh, The Chronological Dictionary of Sindh, The Development in the Study of History and Archaeology in Sindh, The Heroic Struggle of Sindh Against Feudalism, The Economic Plight of Sindh Under Pakistan, The Inevitability of the Conquest of Sindh by the British in 1843, A Visit to Dharhiaro Hill Peak in Search of a Summer Hill Resort in Sindh, Fixing of Boundaries of Sindh -1843-1947, Alleviation of Rural Poverty, Ranikot Fort (its odd location and why?), The Influence of Ancient Sciences Including Those of Sindh on Al-Razi - the Great Persian Scientist, Sindh - the Archaeological Museum of the World, Causes of the Decline of Persians in Pakistan, Policing in the Past in Sindh - a case study, Ghulam Shah Kalhora and His Relations with Kutch, On the Uniqueness of the Dadu District in Sindh, The Large Dams - Their Disadvantages and Objections to Their Construction by Aid Giving Agencies, and many more.

He leaves behind four sons - Rafi Hussain, Tariq Hussain, Sani Hussain, and Muhammad Ali, who all are settled in the USA . His first wife passed away and his second wife, Farzana, is a bio-chemist.

Linguistic expert, Aftab Abro, said that Panhwar was an encyclopedia of Sindh. “These days he was working on an atlas of Sindh,” he said.

Politician Imtiaz Shaikh said it was unfortunate that none of the governments had tried to benefit from his research.

Director of Culture Manzoor Kanasro said that Panhwar’s Atlas of Sindh would have been the first such book in Asia . He said that most countries in Asia didn’t work on atlases, that are usually prepared by people from America , Germany and England .

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