UMERKOT: Supreme Court’s Justice Salahuddin Panhwar declined to have ceremonial guard of honour by police during a visit to his hometown on Thursday and called teachers “the true builders of the nation” at Government Boys Degree College.

Justice Panhwar said at inauguration ceremony of Jalaluddin Panhwar Digital Computer Lab, named after his late brother, at the college that his hometown had given him everything and now it was his duty to pay it back.

He recalled his days as a student at the same college and noted that current conditions at academic institutions required urgent introspection.

He pledged to continue speaking the truth, even when it was uncomfortable. Of the 50,000 girls who completed primary school in Umerkot this year, only 7,000 had reached secondary level, which was a collective failure, he said.

He warned if girls were denied access to education, society risked slipping back to the era of Mohenjo Daro. “The home belongs to woman not man,” he remarked, adding that men must acknowledge the central role women played in their lives. “Their fear must be replaced with confidence and opportunity,” he said.

Justice Panhwar expressed dismay over cultural decline, loss of intellectual curiosity, and absence of academic research on Sindh’s historical icons. Referring to Shah Inayat Shaheed, he said the revolutionary figure had distributed his land among the poor yet no serious academic research had been conducted on him, he said.

“As a nation, we have never been researchers,” he said.

He warned that farmland in Sindh continued to grow but it remained in the hands of only a few as feudalism had become deeply entrenched.

He urged media to continue highlighting public issues to protect institutions and uphold truth.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by senior officials, including district and sessions judge, deputy commissioner, director of colleges, SSP and other dignitaries.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2025