As recorded, Beau Brummell (1778-1840) "became as a result of the Prince of Wales's friendship and his own good taste in dress, the recognized arbiter of fashion and a frequenter of all society's gatherings. For a time his influence was unchallenged."

President General Pervez Musharraf and his cabinet have generally appeared in public attired to suit the occasion. In India, last year, Musharraf came in for a good deal of complimentary remarks over his wardrobe and his frequent suitable change of dress.

Now, possibly in anticipation of what our election results may throw up, at the end of September a cabinet member suggested that a notification be issued on the subject of the national dress to be worn on all formal occasions, amending the existing orders issued in 1992 that a white or black sherwani and shalwar was the mandatory uniform. His sensible suggestion, taking into account our climate, was that a buttoned up black waistcoat and shalwar-kameez be included in the dress code stipulated for all formal occasions. Other members of the cabinet asked that lounge suits also be included, which they were. As it stands, one has a choice between a sherwani and shalwar, a waistcoat over shalwar-kameez, and a lounge suit.

Our press often manages to somehow grab the wrong end of the stick and an alarming press report in one of our newspapers last week had it that this new notification stipulated that only a sherwani could be worn, the implication being that the government was aware of what the election results would be and were pandering to the maulvis and mullas of the MMA. (Had they been doing so, they would undoubtedly have also included rules and regulations as to what style of beard can be sported and what lengths are acceptable.)

Even this newspaper was under the mistaken impression that the sherwani was to be the dress of the day and editorialized on the subject on the 18th, but very sensibly suggested "Let them wear what they find comfortable."

The MMA has inadvertently done some good. Photographs of the leadership with their stern visages and what the world regards as Taliban-style dress caused one journalist representing a German newspaper to remark 'Gott in Himmel ! If this is your democracy, I suggest you just stick it out with Musharraf?' He also added that the advent of these gentlemen might be one of the reasons that has prompted India to withdraw most of its troops from the border.

Had the founder of this modern progressive nation, felt the need to lay down for his people a dress code, he would no doubt have left it to them to use their good sense, keep in tune with the times, and wear what they judged to be most appropriate. Mohammad Ali Jinnah himself, though he did wear a sherwani on high occasions of state, never really felt comfortable in it (he did once remark to one of his close aides that it seemed to him to be rather like dressing up in fancy dress).

To the best of remembrance, the first time that the question of what we should or should not wear on grand occasions was raised by the foreign secretary, Aziz Ahmed, during the second half of the 1960s. Ahmed sent out a circular to all our ambassadors ordering them to wear a black sherwani/white shalwar when representing their country at any function.

Our then ambassador in Paris, Jalaluddin Abdur Rahim, reacted. He sent back a note to his ministry's secretary inquiring as to why such orders had been issued? Was it not rather odd that the envoys of the Republic of Pakistan had been ordered to wear the dress, a black sherwani, that was worn in the court of Emperor Akbar by the court eunuchs (the nobles were entitled to wear what they wished, brocade and pearls of all shades and hues being the fashion of the day). An infuriated Aziz Ahmed ordered the note to be immediately filed and forgotten. However, the official dress code as of then became the black sherwani of historical background.

The next dress code to be enacted applied only to the ministers of the cabinet of President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, almost immediately put into force after he took over the remnants of what was Pakistan on December 20, 1971. It had obviously already been decided, long before the fall of East Pakistan, that the PPP was coming to power in the new Pakistan and that uniforms would be the order of the day for the ruling clique.

A Chinese-style jacket and trousers had been decided upon, but unlike the Chinese pattern, the jacket and trousers would be decorative rather than spartan and would be tarted up with braid, either gold or silver. Remarkably and somewhat unbelievably, within the space of days after the disaster, in a series of frantic telephone calls between Bhutto in Islamabad and several of his companions who had formed the new government but were still in Karachi, mammoth arguments took place as to who would be entitled to wear gold and who silver. The end result was that it was decided that only Bhutto would wear gold braid on his uniform and the rest would be relegated to sliver.

One of the new ministers, Engineer Dr Mubashir Hasan, minister of finance, wishing to emulate his master ordered his uniform from Hameed, the master cutter of Inverarity Road, Karachi. When Mubashir went to have himself measured, he ordered Hameed to have his uniform ready in double-quick time so that he could wear it for the forthcoming triumpahal party gathering in Islamabad. He was brusquely told by Hameed that his regular customers, the Bhuttos, the Pirzadas and so forth took precedence and that Mubashir would have to wait his turn.

Mubashir immediately resorted to the use of his powers as finance minister and Hameed's shop was raided by the income tax department, shut, and sealed. Mubashir grossly underestimated the power of his master's valet, Noora. Hameed immediately appealed to Noora, ignoring the income tax authorities, and told him what had transpired. Noora in turn immediately told his master and within hours Hameed's establishment was unsealed and reopened. Mubashir, needless to say, had to run elsewhere to have his silver-braided uniform put together in time.

Bhutto's party had a penchant for uniforms. During the first year in power, it was planned to recruit and form a People's Guard. The uniformed ministers and factotums were sufficiently sinister, but they had nothing on the battalion-to-be of elite guardsmen made up of fanatical young party adherents who would act as the presidential (or prime ministerial) bodyguard.

They were to wear on their heads spiked black helmets of Teutonic design with a handle inside the helmet so that when necessary it could double as a weapon. Below the neck the guardsmen were to be attired in tight-fitting black polo-necked shirts tucked into black breeches which in turn would be tucked into black jackboots, the breeches to be held up by a wide leather gun-holstered belt, also designed to be used as a weapon. Luckily for the people of Pakistan the guard scheme never took off.

Come Ziaul Haq and the sherwani returned as the national garb for all official occasions. Additionally, government officers, from bureaucrat to peon, were all ordered to wear the simple unadorned shalwar-kameez whilst on duty. When Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif came in the dress code was somewhat relaxed and officials were free to wear clothes of their choice, although the sherwani remained the official national dress.

The latest notification is a definite improvement. Now our officials of all hues are free to choose between the sherwani, the waistcoated shalwar-kameez and the international 21st century lounge suit. Freedom prevails.