BAHAWALPUR, Oct 20: A project “Strengthening hand embellished fabric value chain in south Punjab” has been launched in Bahawalpur, Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan and Lodhran.

The launching ceremony was held at Craft Bazaar here on Saturday. It has been launched by a social organisation “Trust for History, Art and Architecture of Pakistan” in collaboration with USAID to improve socioeconomic conditions of women workers.

The organisers expressed hope that the project would go a long way towards protecting the financial interests of the women embellishers who are being exploited by the wealthy traders and businessmen visiting these areas from time to time to earn huge profits by marketing their products in other commercial markets across the country.

Earlier, THAAP Director Mrs Sajida Vandal told journalists that the project was aimed at empowering the women embellishers in south Punjab by facilitating their integration into and active participation in more lucrative fabrics value chain.

She said it would help alleviate poverty among the rural women and safeguard cultural assets of communities. The organisation, she said, would impart training to around 5,000 women for their capacity-building, marketing their products and creating linkages with value chain actors.

These skilled women would have contacts with the entrepreneurs to have direct profits of their products.

Commissioner Muhammad Khan Khichi, who inaugurated the project, said it would benefit the local skilled women and artisans who would be able to get better wages of their products within and outside the country.

An exhibition of hand embellished fabric products was also organised.

ACID ATTACK: A man, along with his three sons, allegedly threw acid on a relative near Sammasatta, about 20 kilometres from here, on Friday night.

The police said Muhammad Hanif targeted Hanif Ahmad over an exchange marriage dispute and the latter ended up in hospital with serious burns.

The police registered a case.

PROTESTS: A TMA unit continued its protest on the second consecutive day on Saturday in protest against implication of TO (Planning) Asghar Virk in a corruption case.

The protesters boycotted the official duty and demanded action against the Anti-Corruption Establishment official who had arrested Virk. Also, lawyers boycotted courts to protest against the killing of their colleague Shakir Ali Rizvi in Lahore.

The litigants coming from far-flung areas faced a great deal of inconvenience due to adjournment of cases.