How we look and how we dress these days; let's compare it to the image we presented when this nation was new born and so down the decades to the present time. One remarkable difference between then and now is the number of women in burqas and hijab and men sporting beards. Look at pictures of pre-partition Muslim leaders. How many had beards and who except one lady was in a burqa; some female heads were covered with the dupatta, some were not.
Look at pictures of the armed forces. In the old snapshots you will not find soldiers or officers with beards. Today it is quite common. I'm afraid it makes an army on parade look hodge-podge. There is no uniformity. Either beards should be worn by all soldiers or all should be clean shaven or moustached. Look at pictures of the Quaid with college students. Unlike today's college boys, none has a beard. So were people in the past less Muslim than the present Pakistanis?
How we dress and look reflects how we think, paradoxically, not about ourselves but others. This attitude has become sharp in recent time. Previously we did not judge a person by their dress or grooming. Previously, for instance, there was no official dress code for officialdom. Men wore sherwanis, suits, women wore many types of costumes, though the sari was most favoured. Our female ambassadors, Begum Rana Liaquat Ali wore gharara kameez and a transparent net dupatta over her stylishly groom hair; Begum Ikramullah wore sari and her hair in a plain bun. Begum Aurangzeb, who accompanied her father Ayub Khan, wore saris. Perhaps the Iranians thought that was the official dress for women because in the Ayub era at the public reception Farah Diba, the Shah of Iran's new bride, wore a sari as a salute to Pakistani sisters. Today, saris and ghararas are out, only shalwar-kameez is official dress for men and women. Though Bhutto popularised shalwar-kameez as awami suit, Begum Bhutto still wore saris.
The sari has become a political statement today. Since it was declared un-Islamic by the fanatics, and un-Pakistani by Zia ul Haq. It is significant that in the days of local bodies government, our naib nazim, Nasreen Jalil always wore saris. It was a tacit declaration that in Karachi the sari is the normal dress of the majority Mohajirs. Bajia and Zubeda Apa wear saris.
Ms Jalil, however, is not the first to use dress preference as a political statement. In Zia's days urban women bombarded by propaganda, and the insistence that television news readers and school teachers in government schools should wear dupatta over their head, rebelled by completely shedding the dupatta. Everyday and formal shalwar suits for the first time in history were designed sans dupatta. Today they express the same sentiments by wearing low out and sleeveless costumes. The dupatta may or may not feature in the design.
The city's high profile commercial outfits expect men to be 'properly' dressed in shirt and trousers. The higher up the ladder a man climbs it is reflected by first the tie added to the dress, then a full suit at the executive level. This dress code is relaxed on Friday because of Juma prayers. So the question is; why is the western style of male dress preferred over the universally official shalwar-kameez and sadri or waistcoat? According to friend who is an executive in a multi-national orgnanisation, the reason is confidence-building with foreign partners and investors. Meetings take place in a much more relaxed atmosphere since everyone is dressed in the same style. It means both parties are on the same wavelength in terms of culture, education and acumen. Foreigners are said to be uneasy dealing with a person in local costume, especially if he also has a beard. Curiously, the foreigners are said to be quite happy to deal with female executive dressed in shalwar-kameez or trouser suits. Of course there are exceptions especially when business and bureaucracy come together.
By the way, what happened to the neat and weather-friendly safari-suit? It has simply disappeared.