ISLAMABAD, April 29: Rich tribute was paid to legendary agricultural scientist, water expert and archaeologist, Muhammad Hussain Panhwar, here on Sunday.

Speakers at a ceremony organized by the Sindh Graduates Association (SGA) highlighted the services of MH Panhwar and termed him “an encyclopaedia of Sindh.”

They pointed out that Panhwar had been working on an atlas of Sindh, which would have been the first book of its kind in Asia. Also noted as a historian and awarded Sitara-i-Imtiaz in 1992 on his research work, Mr Panwahar died last week at the age of 82, in Karachi.

He had published 36 books and over 500 pages on various aspects of Sindh. Six more books on Sindh are currently under print. His personal library has some 50,000 books on non-fiction, almost equally divided on Sindh, water, horticulture, engineering and the environment.

Additional secretary, ministry of water and power, Mohammad Yousaf Memon, said Mr Panhwar collected various kinds of materials connected with Sindh, especially books, ancient and recent maps and photographs pertaining to ancient monuments and history of the province.

His collection, Mr Memon said, included 11,000 books and bulletins on Sindh, 3,000 ancient maps and a large number of photographs. Some of these were rare and relatively unknown in Sindh, he added.