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Please write your complaint below:
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The
Sindh Government deserves credit for displaying
much needed compassion with the former employees
of the Sindh Sugar Corporation |
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It is not often nowadays that we hear about
governments coming under praise for doing the
morally right thing as far as workers are concerned,
but by providing appointment letters to 378
surplus employees of the now defunct Dadu Sugar
Mills, the Sindh Government and the Chief Minister,
Dr. Arbab Ghulam Rahim deserve full kudos for
resolving the issue of these workers in a judicious
manner. And with these appointment letters,
one hopes that many of the hardships which were
being faced by these workers and their colleagues
at the former Sindh Sugar Corporation in the
aftermath of the closure of the Dadu Sugar Mills
and the Thatta Sugar Mills, will hopefully now
come to an end. After the liquidation of the
Sugar Corporation, a big controversy had arisen
as to what would happen to the large number
of employees that would be made unemployed and
after much protests and hunger strikes, it was
decided that the affected employees would either
be given a choice to opt for a golden handshake
or would be absorbed in some other government
related department. The absorption of employees
from both the mills now totals 1271 and this
truly is a formidable achievement keeping in
mind that successive governments of the past
prior to Dr. Arbab’s were not able to
make a final decision on this matter due to
which the fate of so many workers was hanging
in the balance. In short the decision of the
Sindh Government is a welcomed one and we hope
that this will set a healthy precedent for the
Federal government to follow in regards to its
controversial privatization actions of the past
and those that are expected in the days ahead
such as with PSO and other profit making corporations.
The Sindh government’s decision is also
proof that divestment and liquidations or privatization
of government corporations can be done in a
compassionate manner even in this day and age
where the bottom line is all about making a
buck no matter what the human cost is while
doing so. And as far as the once again appointed
workers are concerned, we hope that this will
also be a chance for them to reflect on the
fact that they have been given a second chance
and therefore they should fully avail of it
by working diligently in their new departments
with a newfound fervor on their part which may
have been missing in the past when they were
employees in the now defunct sugar mills.
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The
great scholar of Sindh Muhammad Hussain Panhwer |
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Muhammad Hussain Panhwar, born on December
25, 1925, was expert in various fields like
environment, history, archaeology, anthropology,
historical geography, climates of the past,
geology and many other disciplines.
He had writtin several books, papers and articles
and attended many seminars and workshops the
world over. He made a tremendous contribution
in so many fields related to Sindh and the
neighboring areas.
M.H. Panhwar was BS (Mech. & Elec.) 1949
and MS (Ag. Eng.) 1953. Professionally he
specialized in ground water development, earth
moving, agricultural machinery, water logging,
salinity control drainage and agriculture.
He worked with government of Sindh and West
Pakistan as Agriculture Engineer in Sindh
for 4 years and Superintending Engineer for
Sindh and Baluchistan for 12 years up to end
1969. From 1970 onwards to date he had been
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 Thar and Kohistan deserts
of and engineering.
In 1964 he established a horticulture farm,
specialized in fruit crops. This was converted
into a research farm for introducing new fruit
crops suiting climate of Sindh in 1985 and
developed many new varieties of fruit crops,
which included 17 of mango, 6 of lychee and
many others. He was author of 36 books on
culture and post-harvest of fruit crops. Many
of them are not printed yet.
Considered as one man Sindhologist his hobby
had been studies of Sindh and published more
than 500 pages on various aspects of Sindh.
Six more books on Sindh are ready for press.
His personal library has some 50,000 non fictional
books almost equally divided on Sindh, horticulture,
engineering and environments etc.
He was widely traveled but lived at 157-C,
Unit No.2, Latifabad, Hyderabad (Sindh), Pakistan,
and ran his consultancy and research work
from office at 54-D, Block-9, Clifton, Karachi,
Pakistan.
In June 2003 Mr. M. H. Panhwar established
a trust to undertake social work in Sindh.
He transferred his home, office, agriculture
land comprising a farm/orchard and other property
in the name of the Trust.
He was honored with a number of awards ncluding
Medal from Sindh University, for securing
first number in first class in B.E. (Mech.
And Elec.), 1949.
Awarded Sitar-e-Imtiaz by the President of
Pakistan in 1992 for outstanding work in engineering
and agriculture. His publications include
Water requirement of riverain area of Sindh;Sustainable
methods as applied to raising fruit crops;
An illustrated historical atlas of Soomra
kingdom of Sindh; Chronological dictionary
of Sindh; The development in the study of
history and archaeology of Sindh; Heroic struggle
of Sindh against feudalism; The economic plight
of Sindh under Pakistan; 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 decline of Persian
in Pakistan; Policing in the past in Sindh
a case study; Ghulam shah Kalhora and relations
with Kutch; Failure of a gate of Sukkur barrage,
a lesson for the future; Pre-Harappan Chronology
of Sindh; On the uniqueness of Dadu district
in Sindh; The Large Dams their disadvantages
and objections to their construction by aid
giving agencies;
Irrigation under Noor Mohammad Kalhora; Un
authorized diversion of Indus waters in the
Punjab and causing water shortage in Sindh;
Origin of castes (an anthropological study
of few Sindhi tribes); Destruction of protected
archaeology sites in Sindh etc.
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