LIAQAT ALI BEGUM KHAN (1905–1990)
Begum Liaquat was a politician and college teacher. She came of a distinguished Muslim family of the United Provinces, and was educated at Lucknow and Kolkata. She taught economics at the Indraprastha College for Women in New Delhi. In 1939 she married Liaquat Ali Khan, a UP legislator, and in 1947 when he became Prime Minister of Pakistan they crossed the border to live in the new country.
Immediately after Partition the Begum formed an association of women who acted as nurses, teachers and administrators in the new land. This asscoaition grew and in 1949 it became the All Pakistan Women’s Association, and it went on to do sterling work in women’s rehabilitation and upliftment. In 1951 Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated in Rawalpindi, but the Begum remained active in politics even after his death, going to the Netherlands and Belgium as ambassador in 1954, and later also to Italy and Tunisia. She also worked with the United Nations and with the ILO, and was chancellor of the University of Karachi. In 1973 she became governor of Sindh. In 1978 she received the Human Rights Award from the UN.
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