The high-profile murder of Liaquat Ali Khan remains a mystery even after 53 years
THE first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, was gunned down in Rawalpindi on October 16, 1951, in front of at least 10,000 people. By then Pakistan, the newly carved out separate homeland for the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent, was four years and two months old. Exactly three years and one month prior to Liaquat Ali Khan’s assassination, the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, had passed away in unexplained, mysterious circumstances.
He who is born is destined to die some day. Irrespective of our status, we are preordained to quit this world. It is an incontrovertible occurrence that awaits each one of us to face some day in the future at an appointed hour. Prophets, apostles, sufis, dervishes, kings, queens, ministers, judges and the judged, sinners and saints ebb unto eternity. He who arrives shall depart. It is written.
It is in the way of dying that makes all the difference. A natural death hardly creates a stir. Whereas, sensational death jolts the world. Had Diana died of common cold she would have hardly caught the attention of the world. Her death in a car crash was high drama. Mother Teresa, who in her own right was the greatest woman of the last century, passed away peacefully. She died a natural death. Her death was mourned, but Diana’s death was discussed and debated.
The assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan in front of thousands of people is one of the most intriguing mysteries of Pakistan. A year before his murder, Liaquat Ali Khan had undertaken a tour of America in May 1950. Throughout his visit, he spoke about democracy, fundamental rights and a progressive and liberal Pakistan. While talking to the US Senate on May 4, 1950, Liaquat Ali Khan said, “We have pledged that the State (Pakistan) shall exercise its powers and authority through the chosen representatives of the people. In this, we have kept steadily before us the principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice as enunciated by Islam.” In the same speech, he, at length, talked about guaranteed fundamental human rights, equality of status and opportunity, economic, social and political justice, freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith, worship and association.
It is only under democracy that you are assured freedom of expression and your fundamental rights are guaranteed. It is under democracy that people belonging to different sects and faiths live in harmony. Democracy doesn’t let any group, no matter how massive in numerical number, to flout or violate the rights of smaller communities. Culturally and ethnically, smaller communities enjoy equal rights and opportunities in a democratic state.
The Quaid-i-Azam was a liberal and a liberated person. He had made himself answerable to Allah, not to a mullah. So was Liaquat Ali Khan. During his visit to the United States and Canada, Liaquat Ali Khan spoke at length on democracy and theocracy. On June 1, 1950, he addressed the Canadian Club of Ottawa. While talking about evolving a constitution for Pakistan, he said, “Enough work has already been done on it to show very clearly that it is democratic in all its basic conceptions, and regards fundamental human rights as amongst its cardinal principles.” In the same address, he removed the misconception that Pakistan was or intended to become the stronghold of intolerance. Such assurances were alarming for die-hard adversaries of democracy back home.
Liaquat Ali Khan returned to Pakistan to die later on with an assassin’s bullet while addressing a public meeting at Rawalpindi. His assassination was cleverly designed by the terminators. Since Liaquat Ali Khan’s murder remains unsolved even after 53 years, his high-profile killing appears a mystery. Who doesn’t want to see democracy flourish in Pakistan? Let us retrace the gruesome incidence, and see for ourselves what had happened in the late afternoon of October 16, 1951. Saeed Akbar, a sharpshooter, fired at Liaquat Ali Khan from a considerable distance. Before Liaquat Ali Khan could collapse to the ground, an unidentified man planted at the back of Saeed Akbar pierced a bullet in his heart. Saeed instantaneously died, maybe before Liaquat Ali Khan breathed his last. In the ensuing confusion followed by stampede, no one knew who killed Saeed Akbar! The mysterious killer had successfully removed the formidable evidence in Saeed Akbar.
Who was sharpshooter Saeed Akbar? Where was he employed? Who accommodated him at the vintage position? What was he promised for killing Liaquat Ali Khan, and by whom? Poor Saeed Akbar had no idea that his own assassin would be planted at his back. The on-the-spot killing of Saeed Akbar was essential for keeping the identity of the conspirators in the then prime minister’s murder a secret for all times. If caught alive, Saeed Akbar might have turned approver, and he might have divulged the names of the conspirators! Therefore, his instant termination was made infallible. Now, the question arises who was the assassin planted at the back of Saeed Akbar? On whose orders he killed Saeed Akbar? Is that mysterious man alive? Or has he, too, been removed from the scene?
