WE at Oxford University Press deeply mourn the passing of a great Pakistani scholar and an illustrious daughter of Sindh, Dr Hamida Khuhro. Those who knew her will remember her, not only as a leading intellectual figure of our country, but also as a human being of great dignity and an energetic grace. She was full, both of the love of learning and a zest for life.

Dr Khuhro accompanied us to our Children’s Literature Festivals at Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar, and remained an integral part of them. She had also agreed to come with us to Bahawalpur but fell ill and was unable to make it.

As minister for education, she strove to improve the situation in Sindh and worked closely with us at Oxford University Press to distribute high quality English to Urdu and English to Sindhi dictionaries free of cost to children in government schools.

Her efforts resulted in an increase in overall enrolment in Sindh’s government schools. She was a historian of note and author of definitive works on Pakistan, Sindh, and Karachi. Beyond these, her interest in education of the young also led her to write children’s histories of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh, and Balochistan. She has also written children’s histories of Gilgit-Baltistan and of Afghanistan, which will shortly be published.

Sindh and Pakistan have lost a great scholar and passionate educationist and we at Oxford University Press have lost a true friend.

Ameena Saiyid
OUP, Karachi

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2017