BADIN: Speakers paid rich tribute to Laar jo Abbo (the father of Laar), Mir Ghulam Mohammad Talpur, at the 85th death anniversary of the educationist held in Tando Bago town on Sunday for his unprecedented services for people, particularly in lower Sindh region.

They said at the anniversary organised by the management of the Mir Ghulam Mohammad Khan Higher Secondary School in collaboration with the Old Boys Association that Mir sahib was the first feudal lord of the subcontinent in 1920 to have built a grand school from his own pocket in Tando Bago for the children of the poor.

PPP MNA Sardar Kamal Khan Chang said that Mir sahib had a generous soul who served his people without any discrimination of caste, colour or creed.

“Unlike his contemporary Talpurs and other feudal lords, Mir sahib did not squander away money on luxuries but spent each and every penny on the wellbeing of people groaning under the yoke of colonialism,” he said.

Sindhi playwright and columnist Mehmood Mughal said that Mir sahib was rightly called the father of lower Sindh because he had rendered unparalleled services for the area.

He said that he was among the few in the subcontinent of his time who devoted his life to education. His role in the creation of Pakistan was very significant, he added.

Hafiz Nizamani, well known poet, lamented that real heroes of Sindh were hardly remembered. Mir sahib was among the very few who had waged a war against illiteracy and ignorance, he said.

MPA Mir Allah Bux Talpur, Prof Dr Mohammad Ismail Memon, Prof Abdullah Mallah, Dr Soomar Khoso, Abdul Aziz Khowaja, Danish Lohano and Mir Kashif Talpur said that Mir sahib had not only opened schools but also set up training centers and mobile dispensaries for the poor who had no access to hospitals.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2017