Another important comment pertained to 'the slick effect' created by the highlights on his bold, contrasting colour schemes. These comments have been quoted because of their relevance to Akhtar's most recent work that was displayed at Lahore's Ejaz Galleries. It is a visually mesmerising show replete with large, stunningly colourful canvases that revel in their quest for beauty and painterly expertise and indeed, many of them are shimmering to the point of being slick.

The scale of the oil paintings is impressive and the range of colours and the application of highlights are mesmerising. The female figure is paramount in these canvases, with a few self portraits and his favourite fantasy of the flying horse, more specifically the 'Buraq', appearing in between these to add variety and interest.

Of late, Akhtar's female figures are not based on live models, but on pure fantasy. His expertise in making the human figure is obviously well honed and he manages to paint his figures in a variety of postures, with the help of a few simple 'home made props' as he calls them.

The women in his canvases are fantasies based to some extent, on his encounter with Rajasthani women, and Akhtar confided that he was astonished by the fact that many of them covered their faces with a veil, but the rest of the attire was unbelievably scanty and unabashedly revealing. This is indeed what one can say of the female figures in his recent canvasses their poses, their attire and demeanour is nothing short of brazenly revealing and erotic, and the artist revels in creating them and presenting them to his audience.

This reviewer talked to Akhtar Sahib about the reason for creating such canvasses, and there was an almost endearingly innocent expression in his explanation wherein he pleaded that there was no need to add more misery to this cruel world and that artists should create beautiful fantasies and not remind us or add to the ugliness of human lives.

For the artist, his fantasies are a wonderful escape and he refuses to subscribe to any other logic or philosophy.

Indeed Akhtar is also a religious man as revealed by the passion he infuses in his paintings of the legendary 'Buraq', the winged horse that many Muslims believe transported the Prophet Muhammad to the heavenly realms at a speed perhaps greater than the speed of light. The artist seemed to have researched on this phenomenon, and talked at length about it as some viewers questioned him about the phenomenal light effects that were part of one of his paintings of the 'Buraq'.

It is amazing that Akhtar is actually 'colour blind' (I confirmed this with him personally), and yet his palette is so visually appealing in the way he handles colour contrasts. In this particular exhibition, the dominant hues were rich oranges and yellows, with red, purples and other hues added for dramatic effects.

The artist says he relies on his perception of light and his own imagination and instincts that seem to miraculously make up for certain deficiencies in perception that are part of his visual disability. His passionate observation of natural phenomenon, such as clouds, sunset and sunrise are often his source of inspiration for the use of colour.

Akhtar's self portraits are perhaps the more 'serious' part of the exhibit. These portraits depict the artist wearing a large turban so that he looks like a Balochi elder, and the expression is sombre and penetrating. It is these portraits which not only impress the viewer with the artist's painterly skill but also his potential for depth of expression.

Though the colour palette is relatively limited in these, there is nonetheless the stunning contrast of yellow and orange tempered by the white or neutral hues of the voluminous turban. Akhtar's self portraits do reaffirm the potential he has chosen to ignore in his quest for apparent beauty and his escape into mesmerising fantasies.