Rehman Sobhan (Bengali: রেহমান সোবহান) is a prominent Bangladeshi economist and civil society leader. He played a leading role in the Bengali nationalist movement in the 1960s, including authoring the Two Economies Theory and drafting the Six point demands of Bengali nationalists. He also served in the first Planning Commission in Bangladesh and was a close associate of Bangladesh's founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Presently, Rehman Sobhan heads the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Bangladesh's leading public policy think-tank that is considered to be one of the top thirty non-governmental research organizations in the world.[1]
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Rehman Sobhan attended St. Paul's School, Darjeeling in India, he went on to Cambridge University to study in economics for a doctoral degree but returned without finishing the course requirement. He taught Economics at the University of Dhaka. After liberation of Bangladesh in 1971, Rehman Sobhan was made a member of the Planning Commission. He had to quit when he, along with others, fell from the grace of Sheikh Mujib in 1975. Later he worked as the Director General of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies. After retirement he set up Centre for Policy Dialogue, the most important private sector research institute and think-tank of Bangladesh since 1993 and worked as its Executive Chairman for a long time.
In 1960s, Professor Sobhan along with other nationalist economists contributed to the drafting of six-points programme that became the basis for the struggle for autonomy in the then East Pakistan. Various writings of this young Cambridge trained economist on regional disparity between West Pakistan (Pakistan since 1971) and East Pakistan (Bangladesh since 1971) played a successful role in fomenting nationalist aspirations of the people of Bangladesh. During the liberation war for Bangladesh from 26 March to 16 December 1971), he was a roving ambassador of Bangladesh and lobbied for Bangladesh in the United States.
After the independence of Bangladesh he was appointed a member of the Planning Commission in 1972. He left the country after he was asked to quit. Upon his return to Bangladesh in 1982, he continued to be active in economic research and policy debates first with Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) and later he founded the Centre for Policy Dialogue, a leading think-tank in South Asia. Currently he is the chairman of CPD. CPD contributes on the important policy issues and arranges open public discussions. Mainly its for promoting an effective governance. He has authored over two dozens books and numerous articles both in professional journals as well as popular media. He was also made an advisor of the Caretaker Government in Bangladesh in 1990-91.
Professor Sobhan's cohorts at Cambridge included prominent economists of the Indian subcontinent such as Amartya Sen, Manmohan Singh, and Mahbub ul Haq. Sobhan continues to play an active role in the civil society movement in South Asia. He is a leading public intellectual in Bangladesh.
He was married to Salma Sobhan who was a Barrister and a human rights activist, who died in 2003. He is currently married to Dr. Rownaq Jahan, a political scientist at Columbia University Rehman Sobhan's father Khondker Fazle Sobhan served as Pakistan's ambassador to Kenya. Rehman Sobhan's younger brother, Farooq Sobhan, an eminent diplomat is the President of Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, a leading think tank of the country.
Rehman Sobhan was awarded the Indepence Award, the top-most state award of Bangladesh in 2008. The citation said that the award was being given in recognition of his glorious and excellent contribution to research and training.[2]