Khawaja Nazimuddin

Khawaja Nazimuddin (19 July 1894 – 22 October 1964) was a Pakistani statesman of the Nawabs of Dhaka who served as the second governor-general of Pakistan (1948–1951) and then as its second prime minister (1951–1953).¹ He was the first Bengali to govern Pakistan, as both head of state and head of government.¹

He was born on 19 July 1894 at Dacca into the wealthy Muslim family of the Nawabs of Dhaka, of Kashmiri origin long settled in the city.¹ Educated at Dunstable Grammar School in England, at Aligarh Muslim University and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, he was called to the bar in England and knighted in 1934.¹ No article text names a school for him; the Urdu article files him under Shia categories, but category filings are not attestations, and Wikidata gives Islam only.²³

He was prime minister of Bengal from 1943 to 1945, succeeding A. K. Fazlul Huq, and after independence became the first chief minister of East Bengal in 1947, succeeding Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy in the renamed office.¹ On Jinnah's death in September 1948 he became governor-general; when Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated in October 1951, Nazimuddin stepped down to become prime minister himself.¹ His premiership was marked by the Bengali language movement and the 1953 Lahore riots, and ended on 17 April 1953 when Governor-General Ghulam Muhammad dismissed his government — the first dismissal of a federal government in Pakistan's history.¹

He died at Dacca on 22 October 1964 and was buried in the Mausoleum of Three Leaders in Dhaka.¹

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