Liaquat Ali Khan

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Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan
October 1 1896 – October 16 1951
Place of birth:	Karnal, India
Place of death:	Rawalpindi, Pakistan
Movement:	Pakistan movement
Major organizations:	Muslim League

Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan (Urdu: لیا قت علی خان) (October 1, 1896 – October 16, 1951) was the first Prime Minister of Pakistan. He was born in Karnal, India, studied law at the University of Oxford, and was admitted to the English bar in 1922. Returning to India, he joined the All-India Muslim League in 1923 and was elected to the legislative council of the United Provinces. In 1936 he became secretary-general of the league and the chief aide to its founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. As such, he was the principal architect of the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan in 1947. An obvious choice for prime minister, he guided the country through its first difficult years. He was assassinated in October 1951 under circumstances never fully explained.

[edit] Early life

Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan, the second son of Nawab Rustam Ali Khan, was born on October 1, 1896, in a Madal Pathan (Nausherwan) family. His mother Mahmoodah Begum arranged for her lessons in the Qur'an and Ahadith at home before his formal schooling started.<ref name="Rizawana160">Rizwana Zahid Ahmad, Pakistan: The real picture, pg. 160, ISBN 969-0-01801-9</ref> He graduated in 1918 from M. A. O. College, Aligarh. After his graduation, he was offered a job in the Indian Civil Services, but he rejected the offer on the plea that he wanted to serve his nation. He married his cousin, Jehangira Begum in 1918. After his marriage, he went to London for higher education. In 1921, he obtained a degree in Law from Oxford and was called to Bar at Inner Temple in 1922. <ref name="early life">" Liaquat Ali Khan [1896-1951"]. Retrieved on 2006-10-16.</ref>

[edit] Political career

On his return from Britain in 1923, Liaquat Ali Khan decided to enter politics with the purpose of liberating his homeland from the foreign control. Right from the very start, he was determined to eradicate what he saw as the injustices and ill treatment meted out to the Indian Muslims by the British. In his early life, Liaquat Ali, like most of the Muslim leaders of his time, believed in Indian Nationalism. But his views gradually changed. The congress leaders offered him to join their party, but he refused and joined the Muslim League in 1923. Under the leadership of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Muslim League held its annual session in May 1924 in Lahore. The aim of this session was to revive the League. Liaquat Ali Khan attended this conference along many other young Muslims.

Liaquat Ali began his parliamentary career in 1926 from the U. P. Legislative Assembly as an independent candidate. Later he formed his own party, The Democratic Party, within the Legislative Assembly and was elected as its leader. He remained the member of the U. P. Legislative Council till 1940 when he was elected to the Central Legislative Assembly.

In his parliamentary career, Liaquat Ali Khan established himself as a principled and capable politician. He used his influence and good offices for the liquidation of communal tension and bitterness. He took active part in legislative affairs. He was one of the members of the Muslim League delegation that attended the National Convention held at Calcutta to discuss the Nehru Report in December 1928. <ref name="political career">" Liaquat Ali Khan [1896-1951: Political career"]. Retrieved on 2006-10-16.</ref>

Liaquat Ali's second marriage took place in December 1932. His wife Begum Ra'ana was a prominent economist and an educationist who stood by her husband's side during the thins and thicks of his political career. She was, indeed, a most valuable asset to his political career as well as his private life.<ref name="Marriage">"Begum Rana Liaquat Ali Khan". Retrieved on 2006-10-16.</ref> Muhammad Ali Jinnah in those days was in England in self-exile to practice before the privy council. The newly wed couple had a number of meetings with the Quaid and convinced him to come back to India to take up the leadership of the Muslims of the region.

[edit] Pakistan movement

When Muhammad Ali Jinnah returned to India, he started reorganizing the Muslim League. In 1936, the annual session of the All India Muslim league met in Mumbai. In the open session on 12th April 1936, Muhammad Ali Jinnah himself moved a resolution proposing Liaquat Ali Khan as the Honarary General Secretary. The resolution was unanimously adopted and he held the office till the establishment of Pakistan in 1947.<ref name="Rizawana161">Rizwana Zahid Ahmad, Pakistan: The real picture, pg. 161, ISBN 969-0-01801-9</ref> In 1940, he was made the deputy leader of the Muslim League Parliamentary party. Muhammad Ali Jinnah was not able to take active part in the proceedings of the Assembly on account of his heavy political work; thus it was Liaquat Ali Khan who stood in his place. As the appearances of Jinnah became rare, Liaquat Ali Khan virtually functioned as the party leader.At this period, Liaquat Ali Khan was also the Honarary General Secretary of the Muslim league, the Deputy leader of the party, Convenor of the Action Committee of the Muslim league, Chairman of the Central Parliamentary Board and the managing director of the newspaper Dawn.<ref name="Rizawana162">Rizwana Zahid Ahmad, Pakistan: The real picture, pg. 162, ISBN 969-0-01801-9</ref>

The Pakistan Resolution was adopted in 1940 in the Lahore session of the Muslim League. The same year elections were held for the Central legislative assembly which were contested by Liaquat Ali Khan from the Barielly constituency . He was elected without contest. When the twenty-eighth session of the league was met in Chennai on 12th April 1941, Muhammad Ali Jinnah told his party members that the ultimate aim was to obtain Pakistan. In this session, Liaquat Ali Jhan 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.<ref name="Rizawana162">Rizwana Zahid Ahmad, Pakistan: The real picture, pg. 162, ISBN 969-0-01801-9</ref>

Liaquat Ali Khan won the Central Legislature election in 1945-46 from the Meerut Constituency in U. P. He was also elected Chairman of the League's Central Parliamentary Board. He assisted Muhammad Ali 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. When the Government asked the Muslim League to send their nominees for representation in the interim government, Liaquat was asked to lead the League group in the cabinet. He was given the portfolio of finance. He influenced the working of all the departments of the Government and presented a poor man's budget. His policies as Finance Minister helped in convincing the Congress to accept the Muslim demand of a separate homeland.<ref name="later">" Liaquat Ali Khan [1896-1951: Political career"]. Retrieved on 2006-10-16.</ref>

[edit] Liaquat Ali Khan as Prime Minister

Liaquat Ali Khan's contributions to the struggle for independence were numerous. After independence, he was thus the natural choice for the premiership. Liaquat Ali Khan was appointed as the first Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Being the first Prime Minister of the country, Liaquat Ali Khan had to deal with a number of difficulties that Pakistan faced in its early days. He helped Quaid-i-Azam in solving the riots and refugee problem and in setting up an effective administrative system for the country. He established the groundwork for Pakistan's foreign policy. He also took steps towards the formulation of the constitution. He presented The Objectives Resolution, a prelude to future constitutions, in the Legislative Assembly. The house passed it on March 12, 1949. It is considered to be the "Magna Carta" in Pakistan's constitutional history. Liaquat Ali Khan called it "the most important occasion in the life of this country, next in importance, only to the achievement of independence". Under his leadership a team also drafted the first report of the Basic Principle Committee and work began on the second report.

During his tenure, India and Pakistan agreed to resolve the dispute of Kashmir in a peaceful manner through the efforts of the United Nations. According to this agreement a ceasefire was affected in Kashmir in January 1948. It was decided that a free and impartial plebiscite would be held under the supervision of the UN. <ref name="Prime minister">" Liaquat Ali Khan: The Prime minister". Retrieved on 2006-10-16.</ref>

After the death of Quaid-i-Azam, he tried to fill the vacuum created by the departure of the Father of the Nation. The problem of religious minorities flared during late 1949 and early 1950, and it seemed as if India and Pakistan were about to fight their second war in the first three years of their independence. At this critical moment in the history of South Asia, Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan met Nehru to sign the Liaquat-Nehru Pact in 1950. The Liaquat-Nehru Pact was an effort on his part to improve relations and reduce tension between India and Pakistan to protect the religious minorities on both sides of the border. In May 1951, he visited the United States and set the course of Pakistan's foreign policy towards closer ties with the West. An important event during his premiership was the establishment of National Bank of Pakistan in November 1949, and the installation of a paper currency mill in Karachi.<ref name="Prime minister">" Liaquat Ali Khan: The Prime minister 2". Retrieved on 2006-10-16.</ref>

He also managed to quell the first coup attempt in Pakistan to overthrow his Government by Major General Akbar Khan in the famous or rather infamous Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case 1951.

[edit] Death

Khan's time as Prime Minister was cut short by an assassin's bullet. On October 16, 1951, he had been scheduled to make an important announcement in a public meeting of Muslim City League at Municipal Park, Rawalpindi. Khan was shot twice in the chest during that meeting by a man sitting in the audience only fifteen yards away, and the security forces immediately shot the assassin, who was later identified as Saad Akbar. Killing the assassin erased all clues to the identity of the real culprit behind the murder. Upon his death, Liaquat Ali Khan was given the honorific title of "Shaheed-e-Millat", or "Martyr of the Nation".<ref name="Death">" The Assasination of the prime minister of Pakistan. Retrieved on 2006-10-16.</ref>

[edit] Criticism and legacy

Liaquat Ali Khan has mainly received criticism from the leftists in Pakistan for his Pro-Western foreign policies and the restrictions placed on the Communist Party of Pakistan. At the time of his death, the extreme leftist press such as the Communist Swadhinata stated "Liaquat's death only reflects inevitable disaster that overtakes policy of playing lackey to Anglo-American Powers."<ref name="Press Criticism">" Restricted Telegram from Consulate General, Calcutta, Oct. 19, 1951". Retrieved on 2006-10-25.</ref>He is further criticised for his failure to visit the Soviet Union where as he did go the US which was seen as a rebuff to Moscow inevitably leading to profound adverse consequences, as seen subsequently in form of soviet help to India, more prominently in the 1971 war which ultimately led to the separation of Bangladesh.

However other like Shahid M. Amin, a serviceman in the Pakistan Foreign Service, argues that Liaquat Ali Khan had wanted Pakistan to remain neutral in the cold war as displayed three days after Pakistan's independence when he declared that Pakistan would take no sides in the conflict of ideologies between the nations.<ref name="Burke147">New York Times 18 August 1947, cited by S.M Burke , pg. 147,</ref>Shahid M. Amin further goes on to say that the Soviets themselves could not mutually settle convenient dates for the visit and even during his visit to the US, Liaquat had declared his intention to visit the Soviet Union after the dates had been finalised however there was no further progress on the matter and he was assassinated in 1951.<ref name="Amin41">Shahid M. Amin, Pakistan's Foreign Policy: A Reappraisal, pg. 41, ISBN 0-19-579801-5</ref>Amin also notes that "Failure to visit a country in response to its invitations has hardly ever become the cause of long-term estrangement.<ref name="Amin42">Shahid M. Amin, Pakistan's Foreign Policy: A Reappraisal, pg. 42, ISBN 0-19-579801-5</ref>

In Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan is highly regarded as Jinnah's “right hand man” and heir apparent — that had headed the team of lieutenants which had so successfully put Jinnah’s plans through during the momentous 1937-47 decade, which made Pakistan possible. For another, his role in filling in the vacuum created by Jinnah’s death is seen as decisive in tackling critical problems during Pakistan’s fledgling years and in devising measures for the consolidation of Pakistan. His face is printed on postage stamps across the country.

He has elicited high praise from both contemporary observers and historians. “No one played the role of Cawour to his leader’s Mazzini”, wrote The Times of India (Bombay) on his death. “He guided the fortunes of his country with a certainty which amounted to genius”, remarked the The Statesmen (Calcutta).<ref name="Press Praise">" Liaquat and Objective resolution". Retrieved on 2006-10-25.</ref> In media, Liaquat was portrayed by Pakistani actor Shakeel in the 1998 film "Jinnah

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Pictures of Liaquat Ali Khan's Visit to the USA-type Pakistan in the search bar.
• Chronicles Of Pakistan
• Assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan: Documents from the U.S. National Archives
• Story of Pakistan