Sir Malik Firoz Khan Noon (7 May 1893 – 9 December 1970) was a Pakistani politician who served as the seventh prime minister of Pakistan from December 1957 until being ousted in October 1958 when president Iskandar Ali Mirza imposed martial law and appointed Ayub Khan as the chief martial law administrator. He also served as the third chief minister of West Punjab from 1953 to 1955.
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.
Firoz 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 Punjabi family. He came from an aristocratic landowning family from the Rajput tribe that was known for their wealth and reputation in social circles. The family traces its roots back to a Rajput prince named Raja Ganj and has provided political elite and military officials from the times of Ranjit Singh, Noon's ancestors having served in Ranjit Singh's army. His father Nawab Malik Sir Muhammad Hayat Khan Noon was a nominated member of the Council of State from 1935 to 1937 while his cousin Malik Sardar Khan Noon was a politician as well.
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.
Noon graduated from Wadham College 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.
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. His sojourn in Britain left in him a lifelong admiration for Britain and during his career within the Pakistani state, he was always known to be an Anglophile.
After graduation, 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.
Law practice and public service in Punjab
Noon returned to India in September 1917, and in January 1918 began practising law at the District Court in Sargodha. He 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 and political activism in British India
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.
After the start of World War II in 1939, Noon, who had pro-British views, supported British efforts against the Axis powers, lobbying for deployment of the British Indian Army in Africa and the Middle East. In 1940, he strongly supported Egyptian plans to establish the grand mosque in London. During the height of the anti-British Quit India Movement in India, Noon played a crucial role by convincing Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the support of Indian Muslims for continued British rule there.
Noon joined the Viceroy's Executive Council. In early 1942, he forecast communal unrest if Britain abandoned India's Muslims by turning power over to the Congress Party.