The President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Raja Zulqarnain Khan has a distinguished career in the politics of Jammu and Kashmir inherited from his family including his late father; Khan Bahadur Raja Muhammad Afzal Khan, former Governor, as well as  Home, Education and Revenue Minister of pre-independence Jammu and Kashmir during 1930 to 1941, his family sources said.

Raja Zulqarnain Khan was nominated for the slot of AJK President by the ruling All Jammu Kashmir Muslim Conference.

Raja Zulqarnain Khan was born on March 15, 1936 in Gujrat. He received his primary education from Presentation Convent School in Srinagar and New Delhi Modern High School Bara Kamba Road, New Delhi . He did Senior Cambridge in 1951 from Aitcheson College, Lahore. Raja Zulqarnain Khan did his graduation from Government College Lahore coupled with B.A (Hons) in French Language.

Raja Sahib started his formal political career in 1960/61 by forming the Jammu Kashmir Liberation League headed by K. H. Khurshid, late AJK President as the first General Secretary of the party. He became member Basic Democracy in the BD Local government System.

He performed as Minister, for the first time in 1969, during the regime of President Major General (Retd) Abdul Rehman of Azad Jammu Kashmir joining his three-member cabinet.

In 1975, he was elected as Member of AJK Legislative Assembly from Samani constituency of then Mirpur district and present Bhimbher district. In 1985, he was elected as Member of AJK Legislative Assembly from Bhimbher constituency and was inducted as Minister for Finance, Planning & Development, Health and Revenue during then Prime Minister Sikander Hayat's regime.

In 1991, he again was elected as Member AJK legislature and was inducted as Minister for Finance and P&D in then Prime Minister Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan's regime.

In 1996, he was elected as Member Jammu & Kashmir Council and held the office till its stipulated constitutional term completed on July 7, 2001. During this, he also performed as Advisor to the Chairman of AJK Council/ then Prime Minister.

Raja Zulqarnain belonged to a respectable and reputed political family of the Jammu Kashmir state.

It is pertinent to note that serious differences between his farther late Raja Muhammad Afzal Khan and the then Maharaja Harisingh of Jammu & Kashmir were developed over the open discrimination about the issue of the possession of arms by Hindus and Muslims after the promulgation of the Arms Act Bill 1937 passed by the Dogra ruler-which allowed the possession of unlicensed arms with the Hindu Rajputs but declined the facility for the Muslim Rajput population of the state. This blatant discrimination on the part of the Dogra ruler compelled late Raja Afzal to shift, as a protest, back to his parent organization in the British-India Civil Service in Delhi.