Malik Feroz Khan Noon

Malik Feroz Khan Noon, who was the seventh Prime Minister of Pakistan (1957-1958), was born on 7 May 1893 to the renowned Noon clan of Sargodha. He was educated at Oxford University. He held many posts in government both before and after independence and was an important figure in the Pakistan movement. Noon was the High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom from 1936 to 1941.

Noon was knighted in the 1933 New Year Honours List. He was further knighted with a KCIE in the 1937 Coronation Honours List and with a KCSI in October 1941. He was also appointed an Associate Officer of the Venerable Order of Saint John in December 1932.

From 1941 to 1943, he held the defence portfolio on the Viceroy's Council, being the first Indian to do so. He was considered in 1942 as the probable successor to Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan as Prime Minister of Punjab.

In 1945 he attended several of Churchill's War Cabinets in London with Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar as representative of the government of India. The same year, Noon was one of India's delegates to the San Francisco Conference that led to the creation of the United Nations.

After the independence 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 as a country, explaining the reasons for its creation, to familiarise Muslim countries with its internal problems, and get moral and financial support.

Noon was the Chief Minister of the Punjab province from 1953 to 1956, after which he became Foreign Minister of Pakistan until 1957.

On 16 December 1957 he was elected as the seventh Prime Minister of Pakistan. He held this post until 7 October 1958, when martial law was enforced for the first time in Pakistan's history by Iskander Mirza.

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

Noon died on 7 December 1970 in his ancestral village of Nurpur Noon, Sargodha District.