Liaquat Ali Khan was one of the most important people who helped start modern Pakistan. He was the first prime minister of the country. He was also the first Minister of Defense for Pakistan. He was a lawyer by trade and a well-known political theorist. He became well-known in politics as a member of the All India Muslim League and was seen as Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s right-hand man. Born in British India to a wealthy landlord, he went to Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) to study law and political science. He then went to England on a scholarship to study at Oxford University’s Exeter College. When he got back to India, he got involved in politics at the national level and joined the All India Muslim League. He was a very good speaker, and he often talked about the problems and challenges that Muslims face. This got him a lot of Muslim supporters. He also had a strong belief in the unity of Hindu and Muslim groups. When India was split up in 1947, Pakistan became an independent country, and Khan was chosen to be its first Prime Minister. He took on this important job at a very troubled time, but he still did his best to make positive political, social, and infrastructure changes in the country. At a political rally in Rawalpindi in 1951, he was shot and killed.
Early years and childhood
On October 1, 1895, Liaquat Ali Khan was born into a wealthy family of landlords in Karnal, British India. The British government had a lot of respect for his father, Nawab Rustam Ali Khan, and his mother, Mahmoodah Begum, was a religious woman.
His family wanted him to get a British education, so they set him up to study law and politics at the famous Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College (now Aligarh Muslim University). In 1918, he earned a BSc in Political Science and an LLB.
He got scholarships and grants from the British government, which paid for his higher education at Oxford University’s Exeter College in England. Khan got his Master of Law in Law and Justice in 1921. In 1922, he was admitted to the Bar.
Liaquat Ali Khan’s Career
Liaquat Ali Khan went back to India in 1923, and he quickly ran for office at the national level. He was upset by how the British treated Indian Muslims unfairly and badly, and he wanted to do something to stop this kind of discrimination. He also had a strong belief in the unity of Hindus and Muslims.
He was asked to join the Congress party, but he didn’t want to. Instead, in 1923, he joined the All India Muslim League. The Muslim League was run by another lawyer named Muhammad Ali Jinnah. In the future, Khan and Jinnah worked together closely in politics.
In 1926, Muzzafarnagar, a rural Muslim area, voted him into the United Provinces Legislative Council. This was the start of his political career. In 1932, every member of the UP Legislative Council voted for him to be Vice President.
Over the next few years, Khan and Jinnah worked together a lot. The two men decided to talk about the Nehru Report in 1928, and in 1930 they went to the First Round Table Conference. The conference was a failure, so Jinnah left British India and moved to Great Britain.
After a few years, Jinnah went back to British India and began putting the Muslim League back together. In 1936, Jinnah proposed Khan as the Honorary General Secretary through a resolution, which was accepted. Khan became the Muslim League Parliamentary party’s second-in-command in 1940.
Khan’s reputation kept getting better over the years. After the 1945–1946 elections, the Muslim League won 87 percent of the seats set aside for Muslims in British India, and Khan was chosen to lead the Central Parliamentary Board of the Muslim League. The fight for Indian independence was coming to an end, and Khan helped Jinnah talk to members of the Cabinet Mission and leaders of the Congress.
India was split into two parts in 1947, and Pakistan became a separate country on August 14, 1947. The founders of Pakistan chose Liaquat Ali Khan to be the first Prime Minister of Pakistan.
In the new country’s short history, the late 1940s were a very rough time. Khan really wanted Pakistan to join the Non-Aligned Movement, but he had to side with the U.S. in their fierce competition with the Soviet Union because the U.S. had promised help to the newly independent Pakistan.
As Pakistan’s prime minister, he had a vision of a bright future for the country and took steps to improve science, technology, and education. He asked the very smart political theorist, educator, and scholar Ziauddin Ahmed to write the policy for education, which was later used as a plan for setting up the education system in Pakistan.
In 1949, the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) was set up while he was in charge. After that, a paper currency mill was put in place in Karachi.
Khan had many critics during his time in politics, even though he did a lot of good things. During his time as prime minister, the 1947 Indo-Pakistan War and the Balochistan conflict caused a lot of trouble. The communists and socialists in Pakistan had doubts about his ability to lead the country. The Pakistan Armed Forces also ran into trouble.
Liaquat Ali Khan was going to say something important at a public meeting of the Muslim City League in Company Bagh, Rawalpindi, on October 16, 1951. A hired killer named Sa’ad Babrak killed him there.
Works of note
Khan took steps to improve the country’s science, technology, and educational infrastructure when he became prime minister. He chose Salimuzzaman Siddiqui to be his first government science adviser and asked Ziauddin Ahmed to write the education policy so that Pakistan could have a good education system. During his time in office, the Sindh University was also given permission to be built.
Khan, who was in charge of a brand-new country, wanted to make friends with powerful countries like the U.S. He went to the United States and asked for money and moral support to help build Pakistan. The United States agreed. Before relations between the U.S. and Pakistan got worse, the U.S. helped Pakistan for a number of years.
Personal History and Legacies
In 1918, Liaquat Ali Khan got married to Jehangir Begum, who was his cousin. In 1932, he got married for the second time. Begum Ravana, his second wife, was a well-known economist and teacher who was very important to the Pakistani movement. From these three wives, he had three sons.
On October 16, 1951, a hired assassin shot Khan twice in the chest during a public meeting of the Muslim City League at Company Bagh (Company Gardens) in Rawalpindi. The assassin was killed right away by the police, but the real reason for the killing has never been fully known.
When he died, he was called “Shaheed-e-Millat,” which means “Martyr of the Nation.”
Estimated Net worth
Liaquat is one of the most popular and wealthiest politicians. Based on what we found on Wikipedia, Forbes, and Business Insider, Liaquat Ali Khan has a net worth of about $1.5 million.