Pakistan’s first defence minister was Liaquat Ali Khan — the country’s first prime minister, who held the defence portfolio alongside the premiership from 15 August 1947 until his assassination on 16 October 1951. The story of the first defence ministry is the story of a new state building an army from scratch.
Quick answer: Liaquat Ali Khan was Pakistan’s first defence minister (15 August 1947 – 16 October 1951), holding the portfolio concurrently as the country’s first prime minister. He oversaw the division of British India’s armed forces, the 1947–48 Kashmir war, and the creation of Pakistan’s defence institutions. He was succeeded by Khawaja Nazimuddin.
In this guide
Who he was
Quaid-e-Millat. Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan (1895–1951) was Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s right-hand man in the Pakistan movement, a graduate of Aligarh, Oxford and the Middle Temple. Before Partition he had been the first finance minister of British India’s interim government (1946–47) — the rare politician to hold finance portfolios on both sides of independence.
As prime minister he kept the three great portfolios — foreign affairs, defence, and Kashmir/frontier affairs — in his own hands, a concentration of power that reflected both the emergency of 1947 and his own authority. He was assassinated at Company Bagh, Rawalpindi, on 16 October 1951; his titles Quaid-e-Millat (Leader of the Nation) and Shaheed-e-Millat (Martyr of the Nation) endure.
The defence job in 1947
Building an army from a split. Liaquat’s defence tenure began with the most difficult military inheritance in modern history: dividing British India’s armed forces between two hostile new states. Pakistan received roughly a third of the army, a sliver of the navy and air force, ordnance factories almost entirely in India, and a disputed share of military stores — the assets dispute poisoned early Pakistan–India relations.
Within months came the 1947–48 Kashmir war, fought with tribal irregulars and then regular forces, ending in the UN-brokered ceasefire of January 1949 and the Line of Control’s predecessor. Liaquat managed the war, the refugee crisis and the state’s finances simultaneously — the first cabinet context shows how thin the bench was.
Legacy and successors
The civil-military template. Liaquat’s era set patterns that lasted: a defence minister who was also prime minister (civilian supremacy in form), an army whose first commander-in-chief was British (Gen. Frank Messervy, then Douglas Gracey, until Ayub Khan took over in 1951), and a Kashmir dispute that made defence the state’s central obsession.
His successors as defence minister included Khawaja Nazimuddin and, across the decades, a long line of civilians and generals. Today’s defence minister is Khawaja Asif in Shehbaz Sharif’s cabinet — see the current ministers list. The portfolio’s weight has only grown: defence spending and the military’s institutional role remain the central facts of Pakistani politics.
A note on the title
Defence, not Defense. Pakistan uses the British spelling “Defence” for the ministry (Ministry of Defence), as do all official documents. Search queries use both spellings; the office is the same. The US spelling “defense” appears in American media but never in Pakistani official usage.
Liaquat held the portfolio until his death — the only defence minister to die in office. The ministers of Pakistan guide covers the ministry’s modern holders.
Who was the first defence minister of Pakistan?
Liaquat Ali Khan — first prime minister and first defence minister, holding the portfolio from 15 August 1947 until his assassination on 16 October 1951.
Did Liaquat Ali Khan hold other portfolios?
Yes — simultaneously prime minister, foreign minister (until December 1949) and minister for Kashmir and frontier affairs. The concentration reflected the emergencies of the new state.
Who is the defence minister of Pakistan now?
Khawaja Asif, in Shehbaz Sharif’s cabinet (PML-N) — see the current ministers list.
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