Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan was born on October 1, 1896 in a zamindari family of East Punjab. He was the second son of Nawab Rustam Khan. The Nawabzada graduated in 1918 from Mohammadan Anglo Oriental College of Aligarh. In the same year he married his cousin Jehangira Begum. In 1921, he obtained degree in Law and was called to Bar at Inner Temple in 1922.

Liaquat Ali Khan returned to India in 1922 and in 1923 joined the All India Muslim League. In 1925, he was elected to the U.P. Legislative Council, where he sat for fourteen years. He was a member of the Muslim League delegation which attended the National Convention held at Calcutta to discuss the Nehru Report, in December 1928.

In 1933, he married Begum Ra'ana, who was a distinguished economist and an educationalist.

On April 26, 1936, he was elected Honorary Secretary of the All India Muslim League and held this office till the establishment of Pakistan. In 1940, Liaquat Ali Khan was elected to the Central Legislative Assembly, where he became the deputy leader of the Muslim League. On December 6, 1943, Quaid-i-Azam appointed him General Secretary of the Muslim League. In 1945, he was elected Chairman of League's Central Parliamentary Board.

In 1946, he was appointed as Finance Minister in the interim government where he presented the famous "poor man's budget'.

After independence, the Nawabzada was appointed as Prime Minister. His major achievements as first Prime Minister were passing of Objectives Resolution in 1949, an anti-corruption act, and Liaquat-Nehru pact on minorities which was signed in 1950.

In May 1951, he visited USA and set the course of Pakistan's foreign policy towards closer ties with the west.

On the fateful day of October 16, 1951, Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated in Rawalpindi. His assassination left a wide gap in the Pakistani politics.