
Liaquat Ali Khan (1 October 1895 – 16 October 1951) was Prime Minister of Pakistan from 15 August 1947 to 15 October 1951, preceding Khawaja Nazimuddin. Khan was the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, having served as one of Muhammad Ali Jinnah's most trusted lieutenants. He was assassinated by a Pashtun nationalist in 1951.
Biography[]

Jinnah and Khan in 1947
Liaquat Ali Khan was born in Karnal, Punjab, British India on 1 October 1895, and he was educated at the Aligarh Muslim University and Oxford University. Khan became a democratic political theorist who supported parliamentarism in India, and he was affiliated with the Indian National Congress until his 1921 defection to the All-India Muslim League party of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He served as the Finance Minister of India from 29 October 1946 to 14 August 1947, preceding R.K. Shanmukham Chetty, and Jinnah decided to make him the Prime Minister of Pakistan on independence on 15 August 1947. Khan was officially non-aligned during the Cold War, but he drew Pakistan closer to the United States and the West. His tenure saw Pakistan and India go to war over Kashmir, the government survive a coup attempt by communists in 1951, and the declaration of Pakistan's status as both a pro-West and an Islamic state during the "Objectives Revolution". On 16 October 1951, Khan was shot twice and killed by the Pashtun nationalist Saad Akbar Babrak in Rawalpindi, and the USA was later revealed to have had a role in his death.