Feroz Khan Noon

Feroz Khan Noon
Prime Minister of Pakistan
In office 16 December 1957 – 7 October 1958
President	Iskander Mirza
Preceded by	Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar
Succeeded by	Nurul Amin
Minister of Defence
In office 16 December 1957 – 7 October 1958
Preceded by	Hamidul Huq Choudhury
Succeeded by	Manzur Qadir
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 12 September 1956 – 7 October 1958
Prime Minister	Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy
Preceded by	Mumtaz Daultana
Succeeded by	Muhammad Ayub Khuhro
Chief Minister of Punjab
In office 3 April 1953 – 21 May 1955
Governor	Mian Aminuddin Habib Ibrahim Rahimtoola Mushtaq Ahmed Gurmani
Preceded by	Mumtaz Daultana
Succeeded by	Abdul Hamid Khan Dasti
Governor of East Bengal
In office 31 March 1950 – 31 March 1953
Chief Minister	Nurul Amin
Preceded by	Frederick Chalmers
Succeeded by	Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman
Personal details
Born	18 June 1893(1893-06-18) Punjab, British Raj
Died	9 December 1970(1970-12-09) (aged 77) Nurpur Noon, Pakistan
Political party	Muslim League (Before 1955) Republican Party (1955–1970)
Alma mater	University of Oxford

Malik Sir Feroz Khan Noon, KCSI, KCIE, Kt (1893–1970) was a politician from Pakistan.

Early life

Born on 18th of June 1893 at village Hamoka,tehsil Khushab, Punjab. He was educated at Aitchison College, Lahore.

He later went to Oxford University. He held many posts in government both before and after the independence and was an important figure in the Pakistan movement.

Career

British India

He was the High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom from 1936 to 1941, and in 1947 he was sent as Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah's special envoy to some countries of the Muslim world. The aim of the mission was to introduce Pakistan, to explain the reasons of its creation, to familiarize the Muslim countries with its internal problems, and to get moral and financial support.

Noon was knighted in 1933 and appointed a KCIE in 1937 and a KCSI in 1941.

Chief Minister

Noon was appointed Chief Minister of the Punjab province from 1953 to 1956 by Khwaja Nazimuddin, following the dismissal of his predecessor, Mian Mumtaz Daultana, in the wake of the Lahore riots of 1953. He then became Foreign Minister of Pakistan until 1957.

Prime minister

On December 16, 1957 he was elected as the seventh Prime Minister of Pakistan. He held this post until October 7, 1958, when martial law was enforced for the first time in Pakistan's history by Iskander Mirza.

Many people have been critical of Feroz Khan Noon's tenure in Foreign Office. Especially, during Suez crisis, he failed to sympathize with Egypt against invasion from combined forces of France, Britain and Israel. Mazhar Ali Khan, in the editorial of Pakistan Times (dated:14 November, 1956), titled 'Darkness at High Noon', wrote "it would appear from Mr Noon's strange words and deeds, that he is still living in the dim past-the days when service to the British was accepted by men of his class as the high road to advancement".<Mazhar A. Khan: Pakistan; The First Twelve Years. The Pakistan Times editorials of Mazahar Ali Khan (page 472-473): Oxford Press. 1996></ref>

Apart from politics, Noon wrote five books, including his autobiography, From Memory. His wife, Begum Viqar un Nisa Noon, was a prominent social worker. Though not originally from Pakistan, she spent her entire life working for the betterment of the people of Pakistan.

Personal life

He married an Austrian lady named Victoria in 1945. She renamed herself to Viqar un Nisa Noon after marriage and became a Muslim.

Death

Noon died on December 9, 1970 in his ancestral village of Nurpur Noon near Bhalwal, Sargodha District.

External links

• Noon warns America
• Chronicles Of Pakistan

Political offices
Preceded by Frederick Chalmers	Governor of East Bengal 1950–1953	Succeeded by Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman
Preceded by Mumtaz Daultana	Chief Minister of Punjab 1953–1955	Succeeded by Abdul Hamid Khan Dasti
Preceded by Hamidul Huq Choudhury	Minister of Foreign Affairs 1956–1958	Succeeded by Manzur Qadir
Preceded by Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar	Prime Minister of Pakistan 1957–1958	Succeeded by Nurul Amin
Preceded by Mumtaz Daultana	Minister of Defence 1957–1958	Succeeded by Muhammad Ayub Khuhro