BGMEAs appeal to the opposition political leaders that they keep the garments export business out of their hartal programme deserves to be heeded by them. There is a very special reason why. According to the time table agreed upon by our export houses with the garment importers, under the quota system, a consignment worth Taka eight hundred crore has to leave our ports by the 31st of January. Readymade garments valued at Tk 600 crore have to be despatched to the United States alone by that irrevocable deadline. As the system works, the commercial wing of the US embassy in Dhaka and. bv implication, the quota authority of the United States, will keep an eye on whether our merchandise has lefl our waters by that due date.

If the hartals should throw out of year the production, packaging, customs clearance and transshipment schedules then we are in for serious trouble. This will not only mean art enormous loss of business for us to the .tune of several hundred crore taka, the importer will also be irate over going without these garments They would not like being presented with an unsavoury Jait accompli. The repercussion can be serious in terms goodwill for enjoying the quota benefit in the future.

On another plane, a lew thousand students are going to appear at the O and A levels examina tions held by the London University authority in January. Given the current political outlook and the line of opposition thinking, the month of January could witness an unbroken chain of hartals. There will lx- loss of at least six months for these several thousand examinees, to say nothing of the high fees they have already entered

These are two specific areas where we are destined to experience an Irreparable damage. There may be a few other points equally vulnera ble to losses. Anyhow, we regard the above two instances as an unassailable rationale for keeping those deadlines out of the harm's way. Even if the hartals or sieges are considered unavoidable by the opposition political parties then we suggest that they take note ol certain business and educational deadlines and set the dates for their demonstrations accordingly. Medicare and utility services should also come under a specified. and what is equally important, well ensured relaxations.