Pakistani sherwanis for Vajpayee, with love

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has ordered two sherwanis from a Pakistani designer couple with the kind of embroidery he had seen on late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's sherwani collars 30 years ago, Pakistani daily The News reported on Wednesday.

Karachi-based designers Amir Adnan and his wife Huma said that Vajpayee had on his flight to Islamabad expressed to his entourage that he wished he landed in Pakistan wearing a sherwani.

In Islamabad when his hosts asked him about what kind of traditional present he would like to have, he, according to the designers, said he had a profound liking for sherwani.

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Amir and Huma said Vajpayee came across as a 'very pleasant, soft and decent personality'. Instead of flamboyant and bold colours, he preferred black, charcoal, beige and off-white colours.

"He also likes delicate embroidery and was very impressed with the embroidery on Bhutto's sherwani collars, which he had seen 30 years back and still remembered it. He ordered for the same kind of embroidery on his sherwanis," they were quoted as saying.

Amir told an Indian TV channel that he was flown to Islamabad on Tuesday morning, before the prime minister left for home, and took Vajpayee's measurement and his specifications about the length of the dress and size of the collar.

Amir said he was contacted by Pakistan Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz, who was Vajpayee's minister-in-waiting, following which he flew there to take the measurement.