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FAISALABAD, March 8: A minor girl died while six of her family members, including four sisters, a brother and mother, were shifted to hospital in a critical condition after taking some poisonous food in Dhudiwala here on Wednesday.
Reports said family members of Ahmed Ali took some eatables and fell unconscious. On raising an alarm by Ahmed Ali’s wife Shameem Akhtar, area people shifted them to Allied Hospital. Maryam (3) died on way to hospital while Shameem Akhtar (39) and her children Mehwish (10), Wajeeha (4), Hina (8), Huma (12) and Zohaib Ahmed (5) were shifted to the intensive care unit of the hospital.
Some of the area people claimed that Shameem had tried to commit suicide along with her children. However, the police and doctors denied the claim and said the cause of the incident would come to light after the recovery of Shameem Akhtar.
DEMAND: Fabrics and bedware exports have stumbled over the first seven months of the current fiscal and required concrete steps on the part of the government to check further damage.
This was said by Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) Chairman Rana Arif Tauseef while talking to the press here on Wednesday.
He said textile quota phaseout and opening of world-wide markets for Pakistani products had offered opportunities and challenges to exporters.
Having fully prepared themselves for the challenges of new world trade order by up-grading their manufacturing and production line through balancing, modernisation and replenishment of machinery, textile exporters were geared up to exploit the opportunities, he said.
Accordingly, Mr Tauseef said, the first six months (January-June, 2005) of the new trade order witnessed a buoyancy in textile exports spurting from 211 million square metres (msm) in January, 2005 to 329 msm in June, 2005. Similarly, the value of exports increased from $163 million to $237 million during the corresponding period.
A dramatic decline, however, started in the 2nd half of the calendar year 2005 with fabric exports plunging from 302 msm in July, 2005 to 194 msm in December and 182 msm in January, 2006, he said.
The PTEA chief said value-wise exports of fabrics declined from $207 million in July, 2005 to $154 million in November, 2005 and after a temporary increase to $172 million in December again dropped to $164 million in January this year.
Regarding bedware exports, he said growth during the year fluctuated on similar lines from 21.9 metric tons in January, 2005 to 22 metric tons in November, 2005 and value-wise from $194 million in September, 2005 to $152 million in January this year.
He said high export refinance rate, increasing production cost and sudden changes in policies such as heavy reduction in duty drawback without allowing existing stocks and cut-off date for sales tax stocks after zero-rating of sales tax were major causes of the disappointing performance of fabrics and bedware sectors.
