It was 61 years ago today that one of Pakistan’s founding fathers was assassinated. Liaquat Ali Khan was not just a founding father, but was also serving as Pakistan’s first prime minister, defence minister and minister of Commonwealth and Kashmir affairs when he was shot on October 16, 1951.
Mohammad Saeed Siddiqui, one of Khan’s close associates, fondly recalls the man and his contributions.
Siddiqui had met Khan as a student at Aligarh College and was enamored by his enigmatic personality and the art of public speaking.
“Quaid-e-Azam had discovered a gem for the nation in the form of Liaquat Ali Khan,” he said.
Despite being a nawab, Khan led an extremely simple life and silently embraced all responsibilities assigned to him during partition. Once the new homeland was formed, the leaders barely had tin roofs over their heads or stationery to work with, but that did not dampen their passion for their new homeland.
After he was appointed the prime minister, Khan managed to lift the new economy and presented three consecutive budgets.
“When Radio Pakistan announced Liaquat Ali Khan’s death, the words of his speech rang through my ears,” said Siddiqui. In his speech Khan had stated that he had no wealth or property, but he would lay down his life to safe guard the country. And he stayed true to his words.
“After Khan’s death, chaos ensued and there was a state of anarchy in the country that persists till present date,” Siddiqui stated.
In his book “Servants of God”, Chaudhary Zafrullah declared that whoever pushed the trigger of the gun that killed Liaquat Ali Khan is also responsible for killing democracy.
COMMENTS (12)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
@ Mr arsalan & Arijit sharma
Pakistan was created in the name of islam . A seperate homeland for the muslims of the subcontinent. Pakistan ka mutlab kia " La ilaha il allah muhammad ur rasool allah ". There was no use of creating pakistan if it had to be a secular state. There is nothing wrong in being an islamist supremacist. Islam is supreme and a complete way of life, the final word of GOD whether someone likes it or not.
Jinnah almost gave up on the idea of Pakistan in the 1930's. It was Liaquat who went to London, at the behest of Allama Iqbal, to persuade Jinnah to come back and lead the movement for Pakistan's independence. He could have had the top slot for himself had Liaquat wished so but he saw Jinnah as being more charismatic and more able to lead. Therefore, selflessly, he served the cause in which he believed. Khudnomaee to naheen sheway e arbab e wafa. Liaquat remains quite an unsung hero of Pakistan's movement of independence. After his assassination, democracy never recovered from the harm that was caused to it by the murder of the selfless leader. The nation is so thankless of his services, that no significant authoritative biographies have been dedicatedly undertaken to educate the posterity.
Liaquat ali khan was one of those leader who basically invented democracy in pakistan.in every century one extraordinary leader emerges and he was leader in twenth century.his passion toward independence inspired the whole world and he gained public confidence through his passion.he was elected as prime minister because the whole nation wanted him in this office and this seat became famous because of him.when he was assinated the whole nation cried out because of losing democratic leader.
“Quaid-e-Azam had discovered a gem for the nation in the form of Liaquat Ali Khan,” he said.
Liaquat was an Islamist Supremacist.
Liaqat being a Nawab presented a great budget of poor man in 1946-47. As a reply to Iqbal's post I would say that Mr. Iqbal if Pak was not separated you would probably lived a SHOUDAR'S life in India and I m certain you would probably been killed in Hindu rioters in gujrat or somewherw else in India.
isnt this guy also responsible for bringing the objective resolution and making Pakistan a theocratic state, which is the root of all our misery from past to present
After 61 years I don't see any improvements. In fact it has gone worse. If we had stayed part of India we would be Asia's third biggest economy, instead we are mentioned in foreign press for something else which would not be printed here.
I bet TTP will claim that they went back in time and did the horrible deed. And only DOCTOR Malik know this fact.
OK so democracy is dead. RIP
Gem?
1) Liaquat Ali Khan (LAK) was the one who allowed Pakistan to be named an Islamic Republic. If Jinnah chose him carefully, it also means Jinnah has no problem in Pakistan being an Islamic Republic.
2) When Nehru asked Liaquat to control the riots in Pakistan, Liaquat refused. Nehru even suggested he will tour Pakistan and ask the rioters to lay down their weapons. Riots in India were controlled to a great extent by Nehru, LAK didn't nearly try hard enough.
That is the truth.