Prior to this he served as Member of the Legislative Assembly of Azad Kashmir.
Raja Zulqarnain was born on 15 March 1936, in Gujrat, Punjab, into a Rajput family to Khan Bahadur Raja Muhammad Afzal Khan, a member of the Indian Civil Service (ICS) who served as the Home, Education and Revenue Minister in the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir during 1930-1941, and who was a close confidant of Maharaja Hari Singh.
After the establishment of Pakistan Raja Zulqarnain's father served as Commissioner of Lahore.
[1] Raja Zulqarnain Khan studied in Srinagar, New Delhi and Lahore, and graduated in French language.
He has a Grandson named Muhammad Afzal Ali Zulqarnain.