ISLAMABAD: The question has lingered on minds, asked individually but received no satisfactory response, at least on public record: Why Pakistan didn’t adopt the iconic cap or hat of its founder making it part of its national dress code and a must for state ceremonies?
The Jinnah cap, on a suit or sherwani, is also a way to express a person’s respect for the man who helped give people independence in 1947 and honor his memory, historians and academics argue.
Marked as a public holiday, each year, Pakistan celebrates the birth anniversary of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah on December 25 starting dawn with special prayers and organizing activities nationwide.
Jinnah’s photos mostly show him wearing the karakul, commonly referred to as the Jinnah cap he made famous during the political campaign for a separate homeland for Muslims in the subcontinent. The cap has such cultural significance that it is printed on the country’s currency.
Why did the cap which historians and academics have referred to the gentlemen’s cap, socially fall out of fashion?
In this video, Quaid-e-Azam’s signature cap’s craftsman, Sheikh Muhammad Rafiq, whose family has made the Jinnah cap for generations, weighs in to answer that question.