A top Pakistani fashion designer said on Saturday that he has stitched a wardrobe of traditional outfits to be presented to Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpyee after Indian polls.
The wardrobe of three traditional sherwanis (ceremonial dress coats), shalwar kameez (long shirt and baggy trousers) and waistcoats would be presented to Vajpayee by the end of this month, designer Ameer Adnan told AFP.
"Vajpayee had only requested one sherwani during his visit to Pakistan in January, but I have prepared a wardrobe for him. It's a gift of friendship and I have not charged a single penny," Adnan said.
"I and my wife Huma were really impressed when we met him in his Islamabad hotel suite in January and decided to prepare a wardrobe for him instead of a mere sherwani," he said.
It took almost two months to prepare the sherwanis as Vajpayee had personally requested that it should have Kashmiri embroidery. "It is very costly and made of special fabric," he said.
"I still recall Vajpayee fondly told us that the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and former Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru also used to wear this attire."
Vajpayee's request came through Pakistan's Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz during the Indian premier's landmark visit to Pakistan in January.
"I have already sent a black sherwani for him through a relative who came to Lahore to witness a one-day international cricket match between India and Pakistan," the designer said.
The other clothes will be presented to him in a ceremony in New Delhi after the Indian elections which start later this month, he added.
"I hope it will be a victory gift for him, but even otherwise I will go to Delhi to present the clothes to him," he said.
Adnan designed the sherwani worn by President Pervez Musharraf at bilateral talks with Vajpayee in the Indian city of Agra in July 2001.
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