Sir Malik Feroz Khan Noon (7 May 18939 December 1970) , best known as Feroze Khan, was a Pakistani politician who served as the seventh prime minister of Pakistan from 16 December 1957, until being removed when the President Iskandar Ali Mirza imposed martial law, though he himself got ousted in the 1958 Pakistani military coup.
Trained as a barrister in England, Noon served as High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom before serving as a military adviser, over issues pertaining to the British Indian Army, to Prime Minister Winston Churchill's war ministry from the India Office.
Noon was one of the Founding Fathers of Pakistan who helped to negotiate and establish the Federation of Pakistan as a nation-state on 14 August 1947, resulting from the successful constitutional movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Early life and education in England
Feroz Khan Noon was born in the village of Hamoka, located in Khushab District, Punjab in the then British India on 7 May 1893 into a Muslim Punjabi Rajput family belonging to the Noon clan. He came from an aristocratic landowning family that were known for their wealth and reputation in social circles.
After his initial schooling, Noon attended Aitchison College in Lahore before being sent to England in 1912. The India Office arranged for him to stay with the family of a Reverend Lloyd in Ticknall, South Derbyshire. From there he applied to study at Oxford University, initially being rejected by Balliol College, he was then accepted by Wadham College. Noon stayed with Lloyd's family until 1913, and had a close relationship with them until going to Oxford.
At Wadham College, Noon studied history and Farsi, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in history in 1916. He was a keen soccer player and played collegiate field hockey for Isis Club.
During his college years, Noon went to the United States in search of higher education at universities there but returned to Oxford. He interacted with very few Indian students while at university, heeding his father's advice to learn English culture, and lacked time to attend any Indian cultural festivals because he was concentrating on his studies.
In 1916, Noon moved to London to sit the law examination. He qualified as a barrister-at-law from the Inner Temple in 1917 before returning to India.
Political career
Law practice and legislative career in India
After returning to India in September 1917, Noon began practising law at the District Court in Sargodha and later moved to the Lahore High Court, establishing his reputation in civil law until 1927.
In 1920–21, Noon entered national politics and was elected to the Punjab Legislative Assembly on the platform of the Unionist Party. During this time, he formed a close acquaintance with Jogendra Singh. From 1927 until 1931, he joined the cabinet of the Governor of Punjab, Malcolm Hailey and held the portfolio of provincial Ministry of Local Government until 1930.
Between 1931 and 1936, Noon was in the cabinets of Governors Geoffrey Fitzhervey de Montmorency, Sir Sikandar Hyat, and Herbert William Emerson where he held provincial portfolios of Ministries of Health and Education.
In December 1932, Noon was appointed as an Officer of the Venerable Order of Saint John. In 1933, Noon was knighted in the 1933 New Year Honours List. He was appointed as Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (KCIE) in the 1937 Coronation Honours List and appointed as Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India (KCSI) in October 1941.
Diplomatic career: World War II and Pakistan Movement
In 1936, Noon resigned from his public service in Punjab when he was appointed as the High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom.
Over the issue of the Immigration Act of 1924 in the United States, the British Government directed Noon to Washington D.C. He was accompanied by Nevile Butler of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1941 to address issues of American exploration in Baluchistan, and the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status between the United States and the United Kingdom, in light of the Anglo-American Trade Agreement signed in 1938. Noon showed great reluctance to grant American petroleum companies access to Baluchistan due to the Indian government's difficulty maintaining control in remote areas adjacent to Iran and Afghanistan, especially when Indians were being barred from entering the United States.