Liaquat Ali Khan was the first Prime Minister of Pakistan and Defense Minister, a position that he held until his assassination in October 1951. He was given the titles of Quaid-e-Millat (Leader of the Nation), and, after his death, Shaheed-e-Millat (Martyr of the Nation).
Liaquat Ali Khan was an Urdu-speaking of United Province but he born in Karnal, Eastern Punjab of India, on 1 October 1895, because Liaquat Ali Khan family was one of the few landlords whose property, including the jagir of 300 villages in total, 240 villages were in UP and 60 villages in Karnal, expanded across both eastern Punjab and the United Province.
Father of Liaquat Ali Khan, Nawab Rustam Ali Khan, possessed the titles of Rukun-al-Daulah, Shamsher Jang, and Nawab Bahadur, by the British Government who had wide respect for his family.
The family-owned pre-eminence to timely support given by Liaquat's grandfather Nawab Ahmed Ali Khan in Karnal to the British army during the 1857 rebellion. (Source-Lepel Griffin's Punjab Chiefs Volume One).
Liaquat Ali Khan 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.
Liaquat Ali Khan was educated at Aligarh, Allahabad, and Exeter College, Oxford and he entered politics in 1923, being elected first to the provincial legislature of the United Provinces and then to the central legislative assembly. He joined the Muslim League and soon became closely associated with Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Liaquat Ali Khan initially campaigned in the 1926 elections from the rural Muslim constituency of Muzaffarnagar for the provisional legislative council. After taking the oath, Liaquat Ali Khan embarked on his parliamentary career, representing the United Provinces at the Legislative Council in 1926. In 1932, he was unanimously elected Deputy President of UP Legislative Council.
Liaquat Ali Khan remained the elected member of the UP Legislative Council until 1940 when he was proceeding to the election of the Central Legislative Assembly.
In 1945-46, mass elections were held in India and Liaquat Ali Khan won the Central Legislature election from the Meerut Constituency in the United Provinces. He was also elected as a Chairman of the League's Central Parliamentary Board.
Liaquat Ali Khan played an important role in the Partition of India and the creation of Pakistan. He was the architect and the builder of Pakistan.
After creation of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah became the first governor-general. Liaquat Ali Khan had no constituency in Pakistan was appointed as the first Prime Minister of Pakistan by the founding fathers of Pakistan.
Liaquat Ali Khan established the groundwork for Pakistan's domestic and foreign policy. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, a team drafted the first report of the Basic Principle Committee and work began on the second report.
Liaquat Ali Khan organized the social and political life in Pakistan along these lines "in Pakistan, consensus can be desired in all areas of civil life, such as art and literature, politics, religion, and education.
Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan developed the educational infrastructure of Pakistan. He called the Raziuddin Siddiqui and Ziauddin Ahmed from his native United Provinces. He asked the Raziuddin Siddiqui to plan and establish the educational research institutes in the country and asked the Ziauddin Ahmed to draft the educational policy of Pakistan, which was submitted to his office in November 1947, and a roadmap for establishing the education in the country was quickly adopted by Liaquat Ali Khan's government.
Liaquat Ali Khan was the person who manipulated, maneuvered, and corrupted the educational curriculum of Pakistan by penetrating the UP-ite mindset, infiltrating the Gunga Jumna culture and introducing the Hindustani traditions in the educational curriculum of Pakistan for the Urdu-ization of Pakistan, a state created on Indus Valley Civilization land.
Liaquat restrained from writing the constitution, as he feared that the Bengali demographic majority in East Pakistan and Punjabi demographic majority in West Pakistan would be granted political power and he would lose the Prime Minister’s office.
In 1947–48 Liaquat-Jinnah relations was contentious, and the senior military leadership and Jinnah himself became a critic of his government. In his last months, Jinnah came to realize that he was a weak Prime Minister—highly ambitious— and was not loyal to Jinnah and his vision in his dying days.
Choudhry Rahmat Ali was a Pakistani Muslim nationalist. He is credited with creating the name "Pakistan" which we mean the five western units of India, Viz: Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Kashmir, Sindh, and Baluchistan." After the creation of Pakistan he came back to Pakistan from England in April 1948, planning to stay in his country, but he was ordered by the then Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan to leave the country, because he had been voicing his dissatisfaction over a different Pakistan than the one he had conceived in his 1933 pamphlet Now Or Never due to division of Punjab and inclusion of East Bengal but excluding Kashmir from Pakistan. His belongings were confiscated, and he left empty-handed for England in October 1948. He died in February 1951 and was buried on 20 February at New Market Road Cemetery, Cambridge, UK.
Differences and problems also leveled up with Pakistan Armed Forces, and a section of Pakistan Army became hostile towards Liaquat Ali Khan diplomatic approach with India. The existence of high-level opposition was revealed in Rawalpindi conspiracy, sponsored by Chief of General Staff Major-General Akbar Khan, and headed by communist leader Faiz Ahmad Faiz.
In 1949, the Soviet Union under its leader Joseph Stalin sent an invitation to Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan to visit the country, followed by the U.S. invitation after learning the Soviet move. In May 1950, he paid a state visit to the United States after being persuaded to snap ties with the Soviet Union and set the course of Pakistan's foreign policy towards closer ties with the West.
When the economic planning of Liaquat Ali Khan failed in late 40’s he focused on the United State aid program. Nehru, on the other hand, focused on socialism and went on to be a part of Non-Aligned Movement.
In 1949 after Jinnah's death, Liaquat Ali Khan intensified his vision to establish the Islamic system in the country, presenting the Objectives Resolution— a prelude to future constitutions, in the Constituent Assembly. It was hurriedly passed on 12 March 1949. But it met with harsh criticism from minority members even from Law Minister Jogendra Nath Mandal who argued against it. So it was Liaquat Ali Khan who promoted right-wing forces while mixing up religion with politics- a blunder due to which we are still suffering after 70 years.
The newly birthed Pakistan faced a number of immigration and naturalization difficulties due to the division of Punjab and displacement of Punjabi Hindu and Punjabi Sikh from the western side of Punjab to the eastern side of Punjab and Punjabi Muslim from the eastern side of Punjab to the western side of Punjab. But, after the death of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the problem of religious minorities flared in Sindh and United Province, during late 1949 and early 1950. Therefore; Liaquat Ali Khan took the advantage to help the Urdu-speaking population of United Province to settle in Pakistan. At this time, Liaquat Ali Khan met the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to sign the Liaquat-Nehru Pact in 1950 to protect the religious minorities on both sides of the border and patronized the immigration of Urdu-speaking communities from the United Provinces, which polarized the West Pakistani population, especially in the cities of Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan, Hyderabad and other parts of Punjab and Sindh Provinces. As a result, in 1951, close to half of the population of the Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, Multan, Hyderabad and other major cities of Pakistan were Urdu-Speaking immigrants from India.
After completion of General Sir Douglas Gracey term on16 January 1951, the senior most officer of the Army was Bengali Major-General Ishfakul Majid and he was senior to Ayoub Khan (Pathan). But, Liaquat Ali Khan appointed the Ayoub Khan as the first Pakistani commander-in-chief of the army on the recommendation of Defense Secretary Major-General Iskandar Mirza (Bihari but a resident of Bengal).
On 16 October 1951, Liaqat was shot twice and killed during a public meeting at Company Bagh, Rawalpindi. All traces of the murder scene were immediately removed and the murderer was shot dead on the spot. Later, a plane carrying the inquiry file of the murder mysteriously crashed near Gujranwala.
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