LIAQUAT ALI KHAN

Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan (Næʍābzādāh Liāqat Alī Khān (About this sound listen October 1895 – 16 October 1951), often simply referred as Liaquat, was one of the leading Founding Fathers of modern Pakistan, statesman, lawyer, and political theorist who became and served as the first Prime Minister of Pakistan; in addition, he was also the first Defence minister, the first Finance Minister of India, and the minister of Commonwealth and Kashmir Affairs from 1947 until his assassination in 1951. It has been alleged that the Afghan and US governments were involved in his assassination, although this claim has not been widely accepted yet.

Born in house of mandal Nousherwan and hailed from Karnal, East Punjab, Ali Khan was educated at the Aligarh Muslim University in India, and then the Oxford University in the United Kingdom Well educated, he was an Islamic democracy political theorist who promoted the parliamentarian in India. After being invited by the Congress Party, he opted for the Muslim League led by influential Mohammad Ali Jinnah who was advocating and determining to eradicate the injustices and ill treatment meted out to the Indian Muslims by the British government. He pushed his role in the independence movements of India and Pakistan, while serving as the first Finance minister in the interim government of British Indian Empire, prior to the independence of Pakistan in 1947. Ali Khan assisted Jinnah in campaigning for the creation of a separate state for Indian Muslims.Ali Khan's credentials secured him the appointment of Pakistan's first Prime Minister, Ali Khan's foreign policy sided with the United States and the West, though his foreign policy was determined to be a part of the Non-Aligned Movement Facing internal political unrest, his government survived a coup hatched by the leftists and communists. Nonetheless, his influence grew further after Jinnah's death, and he was responsible for promulgating the Objectives Resolution. In 1951, at a political rally in Rawalpindi, Ali Khan was assassinated by a hired assassin, Sa'ad Babrak He is Pakistan's longest serving Prime Minister spending 1,524 days in power, a record which has stood for 63 years to the present

Family background

Liaquat Ali Khan was born into a Muslim — (lit. Noble) Mandal Nousherwani family in Karnal, Eastern Punjab of India, on 1 October 1895. 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 famous Aligarh 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 Muhammadan Anglo Oriental 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.[12] 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 Master of Law 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.

Political activism in British India

Ali Khan returned to his homeland Britain in 1923, entering in national politics, determining to eradicate to what he saw as the injustice and ill-treatment of Indian Muslims under the British Indian Government and the British Government. His political philosophy strongly emphasis a united India, first gradually believing in the Indian nationalism. The Congress leadership approached to Ali Khan to become a part of the party, but after attending the meeting with Jawaharlal Nehru, Ali Khan's political views and ambitions gradually changed.[11] Therefore, Ali Khan refused, informing the Congress Party about his decision, and instead joining the Muslim League in 1923, led under another lawyer Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Soon Jinnah called for an annual session meeting in May 1924, in Lahore, where the goals, boundaries, party program mes, vision, and revival of the League, was an initial party agenda and, was carefully discussed at the Lahore caucus. At this meeting, Khan was among those who attended this conference, and recommending the news goals for the party.

Allying with Muslim League

Ali Khan rose to became one of the influential member of the Muslim League, and was one of the central figure in the Muslim League delegation that attended the National Convention held at Calcutta. Earlier the British Government had formed the Simon Commission to recommend the constitutional and territorial reforms to the British Government. The commission, compromising the seven British Members of Parliament, headed under its Chairman Sir John Simon, met briefly with Congress Party and Muslim League leaders. The commission had introduced the system of dyarchy to govern the provinces of British India, but these revision met with harsh critic and clamoured by the Indian public. Motilal Nehru presented his Nehru Report to counter British charges. In 1928, Ali Khan and Jinnah decided to discuss the Nehru Report in December 1928. In 1930, Ali Khan and Jinnah attended the First Round Table Conference, but it ended in disaster, leading Jinnah to depart from British India to Great Britain. During this meantime, Ali Khan's second marriage took place in December 1932. His wife, Begum Ra'ana, was a prominent economist and an educator. She, too, was an influential figure in the Pakistan movement.

Struggle for control

After the 1947 war and the Balochistan conflict, Ali Khan's ability to run the country was put in doubt and great questions were raised by the communists and socialists active in the country. In 1947–48 period, Ali Khan-Jinnah relations was contentious, and the senior military leadership and Jinnah himself became critic of his government. In his last months, Jinnah came to realize that (his) prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan was a weak prime minister— a highly ambitious— and was not loyal to Jinnah and his vision in his dying days.

Sir Syed took steps to change Muslim attitudes to receiving British education. In this he came into conflict with ulema. They believed that acceptance of scientific and technological ideas might undermine Islamic beliefs. Sir Syed believed that the Holy Quran emphasized the need to study and that an understanding of modern scientific beliefs actually helped reveal the full majesty of God. The death of Jinnah was announced in 1948, as the new cabinet was also re-established. Ali Khan faced the problem of religious minorities flared during late 1949 and early 1950, and observers feared that India and Pakistan were about to fight their second war in the first three years of their independence. At this time, Ali Khan met Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to sign the Liaquat-Nehru Pact in 1950. The pact was an effort to improve relations and reduce tension between India and Pakistan, and to protect the religious minorities on both sides of the border.

Ali Khan firmed believed in the unity of Hindu-Muslim community, and worked tirelessly for that cause. In his party presidential address delivered at the Provisional Muslim Education Conference at AMU in 1932, Ali Khan expressed the view that Muslims had "distinct [c]ulture of their own and had the (every) right to persevere it". At this conference, Liaquat Ali Khan announced that:

Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan did not took over the office of Governor-General, instead appointed Khawaja Nazimuddin, a Bengali statesman from East-Pakistan.[33] When Jinnah died, he had held three major positions: Governor-General; President of Muslim League; and the Constituent Assembly of which he served both its President and legal adviser. Although Ali Khan was a legislator and lawyer, but had lacked Jinnah's political stature.

The college offered both Western and Indian education, though Islamic education was also provided. It became much more than an educational institution. In the days before the Muslim League, it became a symbol of Muslim unity. Many of the future leaders of Pakistan, such as Liaquat All Khan and Ayub Khan, were educated there and some historians have commented that the college was the institution which contributed more than any other to the formation of Pakistan.

But, days of rapid communalism, in this country (British India) are numbered.., and we shall ere witnessed long the united Hindu-Muslim India anxious to persevere and maintain all that rich and valuable heritage which the contact of two great cultures bequeathed us. We all believe in the great destiny of our common motherland to achieve which common assets are but invaluable.... —Liaquat Ali Khan, addressing the students and academicians in 1932,

Soon, Ali Khan and his wife departed to England, but did not terminate his connections with the Muslim League. With Ali Khan departing, the Muslim League's parliamentary wing disintegrated, with many Muslim members joining the either Democratic Party, originally organized by Ali Khan in 1930, and the Congress Party. At the deputation in England, Ali Khan made close study of organizing the political parties, and would soon return to his country with Jinnah.

Liaquat Ali Khan ki Shahadat (Death of Liaquat Ali Khan):

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 from Pashtun Zadran Tribe. He was known to the police prior to the assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan.

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.