Muhammad Liaquat Ali Khan was born at Karnal, then in the Punjab Province of British India, on 1 October 1895 in a rich Jatt family. Despite being “courteous, affable and socially popular” and coming from an aristocratic family known for its philanthropy, his biographer Muhammad Reza Kazimi notes that little is known of his early life and that which is has to be pieced together from snippets of mostly hagiographic writings. The family claimed a Persian origin going back to Nausherwan the Just, the Saasanid king of Persia, although this may be no more than legend, and they were settled in Karnal by the time of his grandfather, Nawab Ahmad Ali Khan. They had adopted the Urdu language, and Liaquat was thus a native Urdu speaker.

In 1913, Ali Khan attended the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College (now Aligarh Muslim University), graduating with a BSc degree in Political science and LLB in 1918, and married his cousin, Jehangira Begum, also in 1918, however the couple later separated. After the death of his father in 1919, Ali Khan, with British Government awarding the grants and scholarship, went to England, attending 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 on him a Bronze Medallion. While a graduate student at Oxford, Ali Khan actively participated in student unions and was elected Honorary Treasurer of the Majlis Society— a student union founded by Indian Muslim students to promote the Indian students’ rights at the university. He was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple of London in 1922 but never practised.

Ali Khan returned to his homeland India 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 emphasised a divided 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. 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 programmes, 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 new goals for the party.

Ali Khan was elected to the provisional legislative council in the 1926 elections from the rural Muslim constituency of Muzzaffarnagar. Ali Khan embarked 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.

Ali Khan rose to become one of the influential members 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 December 1928, Ali Khan and Jinnah decided to discuss the Nehru Report. 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. In 1932, Ali Khan married for a second time to Begum Ra’ana who was a prominent economist and academic who became an influential figure in the Pakistan movement.

Soon, he and his new 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.

In 1930, Jinnah urged Prime minister Ramsay MacDonald and his Viceroy Lord Irwin to convene a Round Table Conferences in London. In spite of what Jinnah was expecting, the conference was a complete failure, forcing Jinnah to retire from national politics and permanently settle in London and practise law before the Privy Council.

Ali Khan firmed believed against 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:

When Muhammad Ali Jinnah returned to India, he started to reorganise the Muslim League. In 1936, the annual session of the League met in Bombay (now Mumbai). In the open session on 12 April 1936, Jinnah moved a resolution proposing Khan as the Honorary General Secretary. The resolution was unanimously adopted and he held the office till the establishment of Pakistan in 1947. In 1940, Khan was made the deputy leader of the Muslim League Parliamentary party. Jinnah was not able to take active part in the proceedings of the Assembly on account of his heavy political work. It was Khan who stood in his place. During this period, Khan was also the Honorary General Secretary of the Muslim League, the deputy leader of their party, Convenor of the Action Committee of the Muslim League, Chairman of the Central Parliamentary Board and the managing director of the newspaper Dawn.

The Pakistan Resolution was adopted in 1940 at the Lahore session of the Muslim League. The same year elections were held for the central legislative assembly which were contested by Khan from the Barielly constituency. He was elected without contest. When the twenty-eighth session of the League met in Madras (now Chennai) on 12 April 1941, Jinnah told party members that the ultimate aim was to obtain Pakistan. In this session, Khan 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.

In 1945–46, mass elections were held in India and Khan won the Central Legislature election from the Meerut Constituency in the United Provinces. He was also elected Chairman of the League’s Central Parliamentary Board. The Muslim League won 87% of seats reserved for Muslims of British India. He assisted 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 and it was decided that an interim government would be formed consisting of members of the Congress, the Muslim League and minority leaders. When the Government asked the Muslim League to send five nominees for representation in the interim government, Khan was asked to lead the League group in the cabinet. He was given the portfolio of finance. The other four men nominated by the League were Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar, Ghazanfar Ali Khan, Abdur Rab Nishtar, and Jogendra Nath Mandal. By this point, the British government and the Indian National Congress had both accepted the idea of Pakistan and therefore on 14 August 1947, Pakistan came into existence.

As Prime Minister Ali Khan took initiatives to develop educational infrastructure, science and technology in the country, with the intention of carrying the vision of successful development of science and technology to aid the essential foreign policy of Pakistan. In 1947, with Jinnah inviting physicist Rafi Muhammad Chaudhry to Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan called upon chemist Salimuzzaman Siddiqui, awarding him citizenship, and appointing him as his first government science adviser in 1950. During this same time, Khan also called physicist and mathematician Raziuddin Siddiqui, asking him to plan and establish educational research institutes in the country and develop an anti India programs. Khan asked Ziauddin Ahmed to draft the national educational policy, which was submitted to his office in November 1947, and a road map to establishing education in the country was quickly adopted by Khan’s government.

In 1947, Khan and his Finance minister Malick Ghulam proposed the idea of Five-Year Plans, by putting the country’s economic system on investment and capitalism grounds. Focusing on an initial planned economic system under the directives of private sector and consortium industries in 1948, economic planning began to take place during his time in office, but soon collapsed partly because of unsystematic and inadequate staffing. Khan’s economic policies were soon heavily dependent on United States aid to the country. In spite of planning an independent economic policy, Khan’s economic policies focused on the United States’ aid programme, on the other hand, Nehru focused on socialism and went on to be a part of Non Aligned Movement. An important event during his premiership was the establishment of a National Bank in November 1949, and the installation of a paper currency mill in Karachi. Unlike his Indian counterpart Jawaharlal Nehru, under Khan Pakistan’s economy was planned, but also an open free market economy

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 critical of Khan’s government. In his last months, Jinnah came to believe that his prime minister Khan was a weak prime minister —highly ambitious— and not loyal to Jinnah and his vision in his dying days.

Khan began to developed tighter relations with the Soviet Union, China, Poland, and Iran under its Premier Mohammed Mossadegh as well. Khan sent invitations to Stalin and the Polish Communist leader Władysław Gomułka to visit the country. However, the visits never happened after Khan was assassinated and Stalin died. In 1948, Pakistan established relations with the Soviet Union, and an agreement was announced a month later. The offing of U.S. trade had frustrated Khan, therefore, Khan sent career Foreign service officer Jamsheed Marker as Pakistan Ambassador to the Soviet Union, a few months later, a Soviet Ambassador arrived in Pakistan, with her large staff and accompanied military attaches. In 1950, Ali Khan established relations with China by sending his ambassador, making Pakistan to become first Muslim country to established relations with China, a move which further dismayed the United States. While in Iran, Liaquat Ali Khan talked to the Soviet Ambassador and Moscow promptly extended an invitation to him to visit the Soviet Union.

The death of Jinnah was announced in 1948, as a new cabinet was also re-established. Ali Khan faced the problem of religious minorities 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.

During his early days in office, Khan first adopted the Government of India Act 1935 to administer the country, although his lawmakers and legislators continued to work on a different document of governance. Finally in 1949 after Jinnah’s death, Prime Minister Khan intensified his vision to establish an Islamic-based system in the country, presenting the Objectives Resolution— a prelude to future constitutions, in the Constituent Assembly. The house passed it on 12 March 1949, but it was met with criticism from his Law Minister Jogendra Nath Mandal who argued against it. Severe criticism were also raised by MP Ayaz Amir On the other hand, Liquat Ali Khan described as this bill as the “Magna Carta” of Pakistan’s constitutional history. 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 of legislators also drafted the first report of the Basic Principle Committee and work began on the second report.

On Khan’s personal accounts and views, the prime minister preferred a “harder diplomatic” and “less military stance”. The prime minister sought a dialogue with his counterpart, and 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 effected in Kashmir on 1 January 1949. It was decided that a free and impartial plebiscite would be held under the supervision of the UN. The prime minister’s diplomatic stance was met with hostility by the Pakistan Armed Forces and the socialists and communists, notably the mid-higher level command who would later sponsored an alleged coup led by the communists and socialists against his government.

In 1949, the Soviet Union’s leader, Joseph Stalin, sent an invitation to Ali Khan to visit the country, followed by a U.S. invitation after they learned of the Soviet move. In May 1950, Khan 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, despite it being the Soviet Union who sent its invitation of Khan to visit the country first. The visit further cemented strong ties between the two countries and brought them closer. To many sources, Khan’s formulated policies were focused on Movement of Non-Aligned Countries, and his trip to U.S. in 1950, Khan had made clear that Pakistan’s foreign policy was neutrality. Being a newly born nation with trouble in planning the economy, Khan asked the U.S. for economic and moral support to enable it to stand in its feet. The United States gladly accepted the offer and continued its aid throughout the years. But ties deteriorated after the United States asked Khan to send two combat divisions to support U.S. military operations in the Korean War. Khan wanted to send the divisions, but asked the U.S. for assurances on Kashmir and the Pashtunisation issue, which the U.S. declined to give. Khan decided not to send the divisions, a clear indication that Pakistan was working towards the Non-Aligned Movement. The United States began work on a policy to keep Pakistan impartial, and India on the other hand, remained a keystone to bringing stability in South Asia. By June and July 1951, Pakistan’s relations with U.S. deteriorated further, with Nehru visiting the United States, pressuring Pakistan to recall her troops from Kashmir.

Differences and problems also leveled up with the Pakistan Armed Forces, and a local and native section of Pakistan Army was completely hostile towards Ali Khan’s diplomatic approach with India. The existence of high level opposition was revealed in the Rawalpindi conspiracy, sponsored by Chief of General Staff Major-General Akbar Khan, and headed by communist leader Faiz Ahmad Faiz. Another difference came when Khan also intensified policies to make the country a parliamentary democracy and federal republic. During his tenure, Khan supervised the promulgation of the October Objectives in 1949 which passed by the Constituent Assembly. The document was aimed as an Islamic, democratic and federal constitution and government. Disagreement existed about the approach and methods to realize these aims.

Khan’s authorization of aggressive policies towards India, escalating to another war, had the U.S. worried. In an official meeting with Commander-in-Chief of the Army General Ayub Khan, Khan famously said: “I am sick and tired of these alarms and excursions. Let’s fight it out!”. Following the Abadan Crisis, the U.S. began to pressure Khan to persuade Iran to transfer control of its oil fields to the United States., which Khan refused to do. The U.S. threatened to cut off economic support to Pakistan and to annul the secret pact on Kashmir with India. After hearing this from the U.S. Ambassador Avra Warren, Khan’s mood was much more aggressive, and he reportedly said: “Pakistan has annexed half of Kashmir without American support and would be able to take the other half too”. Khan also demanded U.S. evacuate its military bases in Pakistan. In a declassified document, Khan’s statements and aggressive mood were a “bombshell” for President Truman’s presidency and for U.S. foreign policy. In 1950, President Truman requested Khan to provide a military base for the Central Intelligence Agency to keep an eye on Soviet Union, which Khan hesitated and later refused to do, prompting the U.S. to begin planning to remove him from the country’s politics once and for all. The documents also point out that the U.S. reportedly hired the Pashtun assassins, promising the Afghan pashtuns to established the single state of Pashtunistan in 1952.

Ali Khan’s relation with General Sir Douglas Gracey deteriorated, prompting General Gracey to retire soon after the conflict. In January 1951, Ali Khan approved the appointment of General Ayub Khan to succeed Gracey as the first native Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army.

On 16 October 1951, Khan was shot twice in the chest while he was addressing a gathering of 100,000 at Company Bagh (Company Gardens), Rawalpindi. The police immediately shot the presumed murderer who was later identified as professional assassin Said Akbar. Khan was rushed to a hospital and given a blood transfusion, but he succumbed to his injuries. Said Akbar Babrak was an Afghan national from the Pashtun Zadran tribe. He was known to Pakistani police prior to the assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan. The exact motive behind the assassination has never been fully revealed and much speculation surrounds it. An Urdu daily published in Bhopal, India, saw a Russian hand behind the assassination.

Liaquat Ali Khan was criticized for not visiting the Soviet Union, whereas he did go to the United States. This was perceived as a rebuff to Moscow, and has been traced to profound adverse consequences, including Soviet help to India, most prominently in the 1971 war which ultimately led to the separation of East Pakistan.

In Pakistan alone, many documentaries, stage and television dramas have been produced to enlightened Liaqat Ali Khan’s struggle. Internationally, Liaquat Ali Khan’s character was portrayed by Pakistan’s stage actor Yousuf “Shakeel” Kamal in the 1998 film Jinnah.

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 Garden) in his honor. It is the same location where ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in 2007.