[1] Muhammad Latif was born at Lahore in 1851, two years after the annexation of Punjab into the British Raj following the second Anglo-Sikh war.

He belonged to an educated family  – his father Syed Muhammad Azeem (1815–1885) founded The Lahore Chronicle in 1850, a pioneering English-language newspaper of British Punjab.

Latif received a western-style education at Calcutta University which helped him to pursue a career in judiciary.

He rose to the position of assistant commissioner of Hoshiarpur in 1880, and then also held the judicial charges of Lahore, Multan, Jalandhar, Gujranwala, Jhang and Gurdaspur, working in almost all notable places in Punjab.

[3] Latif was a member of various associations, including Amjuman-i-Punjab and Bengal Asiatic Society.