Liaquat Ali Khan, Indian-Pakistani lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Pakistan (b 1895)
Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan (Navābzādā Liāqat Alī Khān listen , Urdu: لِیاقت علی خان ; October 1895 – 16 October 1951), widely known as Quaid-e-Millat (Leader of the Nation) and Shaheed-e-Millat (Urdu: شہِیدِ مِلّت Martyr of the Nation), was a Pakistani statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and one of the leading founding fathers of Pakistan. He became the first prime minister of Pakistan; he also held cabinet portfolio as the first foreign, defence, and the frontier regions minister from 1947 until his assassination in 1951. Prior to the partition, Khan briefly tenured as the first finance minister in the interim government led by Governor General Mountbatten.
Liaquat Ali Khan was born in Uttar Pradesh in what was then British India in October 1895. He was educated at Aligarh Muslim University in India, and then at Oxford University. Well-educated, he was a democratic political theorist who promoted parliamentarism in India. After first being invited to the Congress Party, he later opted to join the Muslim League led by influential Muhammad Ali Jinnah who was advocating for the eradication of the injustices and ill-treatment meted out to Indian Muslims by the British government. He pursued 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 and partition of India 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 he was determined to be a part of the Non Aligned Movement. Facing internal political unrest, his government survived an attempted coup by nationalists, socialists and Communists spearheaded by segments of the army. Nevertheless, he remained quite popular among the masses and was responsible for promulgating the Objectives Resolution. In 1951, at a political rally in Rawalpindi, Ali Khan was assassinated by a hired assassin, Said Akbar.