After his initial schooling at Aitchison College, Lahore (where he was the head boy and declared the Best Leaving Student of 1957), Leghari graduated with honours from the very famous institute Forman Christian College University, Lahore, Punjab (Pakistan), where again he was amongst the best students. From there he went on to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Oxford University.

After returning to Pakistan he joined the Civil Service and served for some time in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). On the death of his father he resigned from service and came back to his roots to look after the tribal affairs of his tribe. He was the head (Sardar) of the Leghari tribe. All Leghari are outsiders in our Dera Ghazi khan and Chotti Zaren. Chotti Zaren was owned by the Changwanifamily. Leghari deceived the Chagnwani Baloch with help from Sikha Shahi and the British Raaj and captured all their land and sent the Changwani tribe into exile.

He joined the Pakistan Peoples Party, and was made leader of the party upon the imprisonment of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. He was put under house-arrest several times during the military regime of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. He was 22nd Chief of Leghari tribe. He became the chief of Leghari tribe after the death of his father Nawab Muhammad Khan Leghari who died in 1971. After the death of Sardar Farooq Khan Leghari his son Sardar Jamal Khan Leghari became the 23rd Chief of Leghari tribe.

In 1993, with the express support of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Leghari ran for the office of President and won the election against Wasim Sajjad. In November 1996, utilizing his powers under Article 58 2(b) of the Constitution of Pakistan, he dismissed the Peoples' Party Government of Benazir Bhutto on charges of corruption, lawlessness and extra judicial killings.

Following the word of the Constitution of Pakistan he held elections for the National Assembly in 1997. The elections were won by the Pakistan Muslim League and Nawaz Sharif was elected Prime Minister. A decisive majority in the lower house of parliament led the Sharif Government to remove the controversial 8th amendment from the constitution of Pakistan. Leghari saw this as a threat to his power and conspired with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Sajjad Ali Shah, to sack the Sharif Government. This led to an uprising against both he and Shah and forced both men to resign.

Instead of retiring from politics, he went on to create his own political party, the Millat Party, which entered into a coalition of seven parties, known as the National Alliance, to participate in the general elections of 2002. The National Alliance, emerged as the 3rd largest group in the parliament and won 13 seats in the National Assembly. He entered in a coalition with the majority party to form the government. Thereafter his son Awais Leghari was made a federal minister for Telecom and IT and another of his deputies Yar Mohammad Rind also was made a member in the Federal cabinet. Later Mohammad Ali Durrani and his niece Sumaira Malik from his party were also inducted into the Federal Cabinet.

With National Alliance being merged with the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Q) in May 2004 to form a united Pakistan Muslim League, Farooq Leghari also became the member of the newly constituted party, with his son Awais Leghari being one of its senior vice presidents.

His elder son Jamal Leghari has recently been elected to the Senate of Pakistan. His daughter Faryal Leghari is an analyst and researcher in Security & Terrorism Studies at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai.

Leghari died on October 20, 2010 in Rawalpindi due to a heart related illness. He was undergoing surgery at the Combined Military Hospital, Rawalpindi, at the time of his death. Initial reports claimed that he was ill for sometime, owing to complications with his heart.