He Wanted to Expel American Forces from Pakistan
Author: Muhammad Ayub Azimi
Original article: نخستین صدر اعظم پاکستان
Liaquat Ali Khan, the first elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, was a Nawab* and landowner from the city of Karnal in India. He had over a hundred servants. While studying at Oxford University in the UK, he had a chauffeur, a cook, and personal household staff. He never wore the same clothes twice.
After the creation of Pakistan, he came to Karachi and entered politics. He renounced all his wealth and property, even relinquishing ownership rights to his land, stating that he had to choose between being a Nawab or the Prime Minister.
He had only three pairs of trousers and shirts, and two of the trousers were patched in such a way that the mending was hidden beneath the outer clothing.
One day, his wife complained about his lack of a roof over his head, savings, and new clothes, despite being the Prime Minister of the country. In response, he said:
“I am the Prime Minister of a poor country. Do all Pakistanis have clothes? Do all Pakistanis have a roof over their heads? Do all Pakistanis have savings?”
When he was assassinated and his body was sent for examination, it was discovered that his socks were old and full of holes, and he wasn't even wearing underwear beneath his clothes.
This Nawab lived in a house provided by the state and didn’t even have money for his burial; he had no bank account, no property. He owed money to the local grocer, and during his premiership, his monthly salary was just one rupee.
U.S. President Truman once ordered him over the phone to seize Iran’s oil resources, but this poor Nawab-Prime Minister replied:
“I will not betray my friends. I don’t just reject your order — I warn you: within 24 hours, I will shut down your airbase on my soil. Remove your warplanes.”
Do those aspiring to power in the Muslim world — including in Pakistan and Turkey — and more broadly, the Islamic world, possess the same courage and sense of responsibility toward their citizens?
Note: Nawab Liaquat Ali Khan was the son of Nawab Rustam Ali Khan, known as Rukn-ud-Daula Shamsher Jang Bahadur (a title given to him by the British). His lineage traces back to Nushirvan the Just. In the 15th century, his ancestors migrated from Persia to India. Liaquat Ali Khan was fluent in Persian.
His father, Rustam Ali Khan, was a Nawab and landowner in Karnal and Muzaffarnagar, India.
Liaquat Ali Khan was born in early October 1895 in the city of Karnal, India, and was assassinated on October 16, 1951, in Company Bagh (now Liaquat Bagh) in the town of Rawalpindi during a speech as part of a conspiracy (Benazir Bhutto was also assassinated in the same garden). The killer was introduced as Said Akbar, son of Babrak Jadran.
* Nawab — a royal title in the Indian subcontinent. In ancient times, it was granted by the Mongol khan to semi-autonomous Muslim rulers of provinces or principalities on the subcontinent who were loyal to the khan — for example, the Nawabs of Bengal. Although "Nawab" is the plural of "Naib," in India it is considered a singular noun.