Born into a political family, Abdul Ali Khan was the youngest son of
Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Bacha Khan). He remained apolitical in his whole life. He was educated in
Colonel Brown Cambridge School in
Dehradun and completed his bachelor's degree from
Peshawar University, before travelling to England to complete his postgraduate studies from
the University of Oxford. He returned to
Peshawar where he worked as a lecturer in history in
Islamia College Peshawar. He subsequently served as Principal of Government college of
Mianwali and
Sargodha and was the principal of the elite
Aitchison College Lahore from 1962 to 1970 before being appointed secretary education (1970–1972) in the
North-West Frontier Province. He was then appointed
Vice-Chancellor of
Peshawar University and
Gomal University. Eventually moving on to serve as Education secretary again before being appointed Principal of the newly established
Fazle Haq College Mardan. He was a recipient of the
Sitara-e-Imtiaz in 1997. He died in 1997 following a
myocardial infarction. ==References==