In 1943, Murtaza was commissioned into the British Indian Army and served as an aide-de-camp to the Commander-in-Chief, India, General (later Field-Marshal) Sir Claude Auchinleck.
From 1969 until 1971, he served as a member in the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly, as well as an MP in the Lok Sabha.
It is an interesting historical fact that Murtaza Ali contested an election from Rampur opposite his own mother Rafat Jamani Begum in 1972 and won.
In 1946, Nawab Murtaza married Sakina uz-Zamani (11 September 1928 – 3 August 1994), the daughter of a minor chieftain of Pirpur.
He became a vice-chairman on its board of trustees in 1975 and remained in that capacity until his death on 29 January 1982 after a 16-year reign, aged 56.