Feroz Khan Noon

Feroz Khan Noon
7th 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 Foreign Affairs
In office 12 September 1956 – 17 October 1957
Prime Minister	Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy
Preceded by	Hamidul Huq Choudhury
Succeeded by	Manzur Qadir
Personal details
Born	18 June 1893(1893-06-18) Punjab, British India
Died	9 December 1970(1970-12-09) (aged 77) Nurpur Noon, Pakistan
Political party	Republican Party (1955–1970)
Other political affiliations	Muslim League (Before 1955)
Alma mater	Oxford University
Religion	Sunni Islam

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 was educated at Oxford University and belonged to the Noon family (Rajput). 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. This one-man delegation was the first official mission sent abroad by the Pakistani government. 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.^[1]

Death

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

References

1. ^ "Begum Viqar-un-Nisa [1920-2000"]. Enterprise Team. http://www.storyofpakistan.com/person.asp?perid=P032. Retrieved 10 September 2011. 

External links

• Noon and Border Dispute TIME MAGAZINE
• Noon warns America
• Chronicles Of Pakistan

Political offices
Preceded by Frederick Chalmers	Governor of East Bengal 1950–1953	Succeeded by Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman
Preceded by Mian Mumtaz Daultana	Chief Minister of Punjab 1953–1955	Succeeded by Abdul Hamid Khan Dasti
Preceded by Hamidul Huq Choudhury	Foreign Minister of Pakistan 1956–1958	Succeeded by Manzur Qadir
Preceded by Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar	Prime Minister of Pakistan 1957–1958	Succeeded by Nurul Amin took this office in 1971
Preceded by Mian Mumtaz Daultana	Minister of Defence 1957–1958	Succeeded by Muhammad Ayub Khuhro

Persondata
Name	Noon, Feroz Khan
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	18 June 1893
Place of birth	Punjab, British India
Date of death	9 December 1970
Place of death	Nurpur Noon, Pakistan