page_title: Ra'ana Liaquat Ali Khan
section_title: Career as stateswoman
hierarchical_section_title: Ra'ana Liaquat Ali Khan / Career as stateswoman
caption_attribution_description: English: Begum Liaquat Ali Khan touring New York's Children's Centre.
context_page_description: Begum Ra'ana Liaqat Ali Khan, was the First Lady of Pakistan from 1947 to 1951 as the wife of Liaquat Ali Khan who served as the 1st Prime Minister of Pakistan. She was one of the leading woman figures in the Pakistan Movement along with her husband, and a career economist, and prominent stateswoman from the start of the cold war till the fall and the end of the cold war. Ra'anna was one of the leading woman politicians and nationwide respected woman personalities who started her career in the 1940s and witnessed key major events in Pakistan. She was one of the leading and pioneering woman figures in the Pakistan Movement and served as the executive member of Pakistan Movement committee working under Muhammad Ali Jinnah. She also served as economic adviser to Jinnah's Pakistan Movement Committee and later became First Lady of Pakistan when her husband Liaqat Khan Ali became Pakistan's first prime minister. As First Lady of Pakistan, she launched programs for woman's development in the newly founded country. Later, she would start her career as a stateswoman that would last a decade.
context_section_description: After her husband's death, Ra'ana went on to start her career as a stateswoman that lasted more than 2 decades. In 1952, Ra'ana was the first Muslim woman delegate to the United Nations in 1952. In 1954, the Government of Pakistan had appointed her as Pakistan's Ambassador to the Netherlands, and also was the first woman ambassador of Pakistan. She represented Pakistan in the Netherlands until 1961 and was also the doyen of the Diplomatic Corps. In June 1966, she was appointed as Pakistan's Ambassador to Italy and stayed there until 1965. Later, she was directed to Tunisia as Pakistan's Ambassador to Tunisia and held this position until March 1966. Following her return to Pakistan, Ra'ana joined Rana Liaquat Ali Khan Government College of Home Economics as Professor of Economics and stayed there until 1973. The Government College University awarded her an honorary doctorate in economics and conferred her with a Doctor of Philosophy in Economics in 1967.
caption: Begum Liaquat Ali Khan touring New York's Children's Centre
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