The politician who battled for democracy against Pakistan's authoritarian governments. Nawabzada was a consistent voice of dissent and a crusading democrat against authoritarian government throughout the history of Pakistan. He had uncanny ability to unite diverse parties around the fundamentals of the rule of law. Nawabzada came into politics when he joined the anti-colonial political party Majlis-I-Ahrar (Congress for Liberation) in 1933. After the independence of the country, in 1947, he joined the Muslim League and it was during General Ayub Khan's military rule (1958-68) that he made a mark on national politics by building opposition as Democratic Action Committee, which prepared the ground for the fall of the military regime. Nasrullah Khan's next alliance-building was in 1977 in the shape of the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) against the administration of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1973. Then in the 1980s he assembled democratic forces under the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) against the military rule of Zial-ul-Haq and launched, in 1983, a successful countrywide civil disobedience movement. His final act as an anti-establishment came as Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) after the military regime of Musharraf that came to power in 1999. Nasrullah Khan was also a poet and orator who authored two volumes of poetry and enthused the crowds with oratory punctuated with verses from Urdu poetry. Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan whose aim was to bring Pakistan's warring democratic leaders together on a pro-democracy platform was born into a feudal family, in Khangarh in Punjab.