Liaquat Ali Khan (1896-1951) was the first 

prime
minister of Pakistan. He played an important role in the
negotiations leading to the creation of Pakistan and then in
the consolidation of the new state.
On Oct. 1, 1896, Liaquat Ali Khan was born at Karnal in Punjab,
India. His family were wealthy landowners who later moved to
the United Provinces. He was educated at Aligarh and Oxford
University. After qualifying as a barrister in England in 1922, he
returned to India.
Liaquat was elected to the Legislative Council of the United
Provinces in 1926, where he served for the next 14 years.
During this period he was active in the affairs of the Muslim
League, and in 1937 he became its secretary. Genial and able
to mingle easily with all classes, he was a useful counterpoise
to the austere Mohammad Ali Jinnah, with whom he worked
closely in building up the Muslim League as an effective political
organization after 1937. Liaquat was elected to the Central
Legislative Assembly in 1940, where, as deputy leader of the
Muslim League party, he strengthened the Muslim demand for a
separate home-land.
In 1946, when independence for India was being negotiated
with the British, Liaquat was appointed finance minister in the
interim government. His "poor man's budget," which put heavy
taxes on the rich and threatened to investigate the activities of
the great industrialists, was regarded as an attack on the Indian
National Congress, which the industrialists helped to finance.
After partition on Aug. 15, 1947, Liaquat became prime
minister of Pakistan. Although at first he was subordinate to
Jinnah, the governor general, after Jinnah's death in 1948 he
emerged as the most powerful figure in the nation. Two major
issues were used by his opponents, however, to undermine the
stability of his regime. One was relations with India, which had
been embittered by the struggle over Kashmir. Open war
seemed a possibility in 1950, but Liaquat's journey to Delhi,
where he signed an agreement with Jawaharlal Nehru pledging
cooperation between the two countries, lessened some of the
tension. This action was fiercely criticized by militant groups in
Pakistan as a concession to India.
The other issue was the demand by orthodox Moslems to
declare Pakistan an Islamic state, with all laws conforming to
the Koran. Liaquat, who was a liberal democrat, with strong
commitments to modernization, opposed this demand as
reactionary. His compromise, as accepted by the legislators,
was that Pakistan was a state where "Moslems would be
enabled to lead their lives … in accord with the teachings of
Islam." He was not able to halt the growing factionalism,
however, and a fanatic assassinated him on Oct. 16, 1951.