Family Background
Liaquat Ali Khan was born into a Punjabi Muslim Nawáb (lit. Noble) family in Karnal, Eastern Punjab of India, on October 1, 1895. His ancestors were traced to Nosherwani-Sassanid Dynasty settled in Eastern Punjab.His father, Nawab Rustam Ali Khan, possessed the titles of Rukun-al-Daulah, Shamsher Jang and Nawab Bahadur, by the local population and the British Government who had wide respect for his family. The Ali Khan family was one of the few landlords whose property (300 Villages in total including the jagir of 60 villages in Karnal) expanded across both eastern Punjab and the United Provinces.The family owned pre-eminence to timely support given by Liaqat's grandfather Nawab Ahmed Ali Khan of Karnal to British army during 1857 rebellion.(source-Lepel Griffin's Punjab Chiefs Volume One).Liaquat Ali Khan's mother, Mahmoodah Begum, arranged for his lessons in the Qur'an and Ahadith at home before his formal schooling started.His family had strong ties with the British Government, and the senior British government officers were usually visited at his big and wide mansion at their time of visit.
His family had deep respect for the Indian Muslim thinker and philosopher Syed Ahmad Khan, and his father had strong views and desires for young Liaqat Ali Khan to educated in the British educational system; therefore, his family admitted Ali Khan to famousAligarh Muslim University (AMU) to study law and political science. Ali Khan was sent to Aligarh to attend the AMU where he would obtained degrees in law and political science.
In 1913, Ali Khan attended the MOA College (now Aligarh Muslim University), graduating with a BSc in Political science and LLB in 1918, and married his cousin, Jehangira Begum, also in 1918.After the death of his father in 1919, Ali Khan, with British Government awarding the grants and scholarship, went to England, attending the Oxford University's Exeter College to pursue his higher education.In 1921, Ali Khan was awarded the LLM in Law and Justice, by the college faculty who also conferred him with a Bronze Medallion.While a graduate student at Oxford, Ali Khan took active participation in student unions and was an elected Honorary Treasurer of the Majlis Society— a student union founded by Indian Muslim students to promote the Indian students rights at the university.Thereafter, Ali Khan was called to joined the Inner Temple, one of the Inns of Court in London.He was called to the Bar in 1922 by one of his English law professor, and starting his practices in law as an advocate.
Pakistan movement
When Muhammad Ali Jinnah returned to India, he started to reorganise the Muslim League. In 1936, the annual session of the League met in Bombay. In the open session on 12 April 1936, Jinnah moved a resolution proposing Khan as the Honorary General Secretary. The resolution was unanimously adopted and he held the office till the establishment of Pakistan in 1947. In 1940, Khan was made the deputy leader of the Muslim League Parliamentary party. Jinnah was not able to take active part in the proceedings of the Assembly on account of his heavy political work. It was Khan who stood in his place. During this period, Khan was also the Honorary General Secretary of the Muslim League, the deputy leader of their party, Convenor of the Action Committee of the Muslim League, Chairman of the Central Parliamentary Board and the managing director of the newspaper Dawn.
The Pakistan Resolution was adopted in 1940 at the Lahore session of the Muslim League. The same year elections were held for the central legislative assembly which were contested by Khan from the Barielly constituency. He was elected without contest. When the twenty-eighth session of the League met in Madras on 12 April 1941, Jinnah told party members that the ultimate aim was to obtain Pakistan. In this session, Khan moved a resolution incorporating the objectives of the Pakistan Resolution in the aims and objectives of the Muslim League. The resolution was seconded and passed unanimously.
In 1945-46, mass elections were held in India and Khan won the Central Legislature election from the Meerut Constituency in the United Provinces. He was also elected Chairman of the League's Central Parliamentary Board. The Muslim League won 87% of seats reserved for Muslims of British India. He assisted Jinnah in his negotiations with the members of the Cabinet Mission and the leaders of the Congress during the final phases of the Freedom Movement and it was decided that an interim government would be formed consisting of members of the Congress, the Muslim League and minority leaders. When the Government asked the Muslim League to send five nominees for representation in the interim government, Khan was asked to lead the League group in the cabinet. He was given the portfolio of finance.The other four men nominated by the League were Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar, Ghazanfar Ali Khan, Abdur Rab Nishtar, and Jogendra Nath Mandal.By this point, the British government and the Indian National Congress had both accepted the idea of Pakistan and therefore on 14 August 1947, Pakistan came into existence.
Prime Minister
After independence, Ali Khan was appointed as the first Prime Minister of Pakistan by the founding fathers of Pakistan. Khan was made the prime minister during the penultimate times, the country was born at the time of starting of the extensive competition between two world superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union.Ali Khan faced with mounted challenges and difficulties while trying to administer the country. Ali Khan and the Muslim League faced with dual competitions with socialists in West-Pakistan and, the communists in East Pakistan.The Muslim League founded difficult to face competition with socialists in West Pakistan, and lost considerable support in favor of socialists led its Marxist leaderFaiz Ahmad Faiz. In East Pakistan, the Muslim League's political base was vanished byPakistan Communist Party after staging a mass protest.
At an internal front, Ali Khan faced with socialist's nationalists challenges and different religious ideologies further pushed the country into more unrest. Problems with Soviet Union and Soviet bloc further escalated after Ali Khan failed to make a visit to Soviet Union, despite his intention.Although, Ali Khan envision the foreign policy more independent, despite his initiatives, the country had became more dependent to the United States which influenced on Ali Khan's policy towards the communist bloc.
Ali Khan send the recommendation to Jinnah to appointed Abdul Rashid as country's first Chief Justice, and Justice Abdur Rahim as President of Constitutional Assembly, both of them were also the Founding fathers of Pakistan.Earliest reforms Ali Khan took was to centralize the Muslim League, and planned and prepared the Muslim League to become the successor authority of Pakistan.
Assassination and death
On 16 October 1951, Khan was shot twice in the chest during a public meeting of the Muslim City League at Company Bagh (Company Gardens), Rawalpindi. The police immediately shot the assassin who was later identified as Saad Akbar Babrak.Khan was rushed to a hospital and given a blood transfusion, but he succumbed to his injuries. The exact motive behind the assassination has never been fully revealed.Saad Akbar Babrak was an Afghan national and a professional assassin from Hazara.He was known to the police prior to the assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan. The assassination is still a very big question mark because it was never investigated properly.
Upon his death, Khan was given the honorific title of "Shaheed-e-Millat", or "Martyr of the Nation". He is buried at Mazar-e-Quaid, the mausoleum built for Jinnah in Karachi.The Municipal Park, where he was assassinated, was renamed Liaquat Bagh (Bagh means park) in his honor. It is the same location where ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in 2007.
| Prime Minister of Pakistan | |
|---|---|
| In office 14 August 1947 – 16 October 1951 | |
| Monarch | George VI |
| Governor General | Muhammad Ali Jinnah |
| Preceded by | State proclaimed |
| Succeeded by | Khawaja Nazimuddin |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan | |
| In office 14 August 1947 – 27 December 1949 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Muhammad Zafarullah Khan |
| Minister of Defence of Pakistan | |
| In office 14 August 1947 – 16 October 1951 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Khawaja Nazimuddin |
| Minister of Finance of India | |
| In office 29 October 1946 – 14 August 1947 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Shanmukham Chetty |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1 October 1896 Karnal, British Raj (now India) |
| Died | 16 October 1951 (aged 55) Rawalpindi, Pakistan |
| Political party | Muslim League |
| Alma mater | Aligarh Muslim University Exeter College, Oxford Inns of Court School of Law |
| The Ali Khan Cabinet | ||
|---|---|---|
| Ministerial office | Officer holder | Term |
| Prime minister | Liaquat Ali Khan | 1947–1951 |
| Governor-General | Mohammad Ali Jinnah Khawaja Nazimuddin | 1947–1948 1948-1951 |
| Foreign Affairs | Sir Zafrullah Khan | 1947–1954 |
| Treasury, Economic | Malik Ghulam | 1947–1954 |
| Law, Justice, Labor | Jogendra Nath Mandal | 1947–1951 |
| Interior | Fazlur Rehman Khuvaja Shahab-uddin | 1947-1948 1948-1951 |
| Defence | Iskander Mirza | 1947–1954 |
| Science advisor | Salimuzzaman Siddiqui | 1951–1959 |
| Education, Health | Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry | 1947–1956 |
| Finance, Statistics | Sir Victor Turner | 1947–1951 |
| Minorities, Women | Sheila Irene Pant | 1947–1951 |
| Communications | Abdur Rab Nishtar | 1947–1951 |
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