Life of A Successful Entrepreneur :
Mr. Abul Kashem Khan
Dr. A R Khan
Abul Kashem Khan who was popularly known as A K Khan was a great industrialist from Chittagong. He was born in the 5th of April 1905 in a village named Mohra. The name of his father was Mr. Abdul Latif Khan who was a sub-register. It is said that his forefather Hamja Khan came from Gour. His father was stationed in Fatehabad. But his mother used to stay most of the time in Mohra. Abul Kashem in his boyhood stayed with his father in Fatehabad for schooling.
Thus, Kashem had his primary education in Fatehabad. Afterwards, he passed the matriculation examination with distinction from the Fatehabad High School. From Chittagong Government College, he passed the intermediate examination. Then, he went to Calcutta for higher studies. There, he was admitted into the Calcutta Presidency College. In 1927, he passed the B.A with distinction with Honors in English language. From the very boyhood, Abul Kashem had an ambition to become a lawyer. That was why, he got himself admitted into a Law College of the Calcutta University. And in 1933, he succeeded in obtaining the L L B degree. In this examination, he secured second position among the first divisioners. After obtaining the Law degree, Abul Kashem started his practical life I 1933 as a lawyer in the Calcutta High Court. Two years after, his father retired from his service. This led him to take job of a munsheep in order to undertake the family responsibility. He was in this job for eight years from 1943. While in civil service, he widely traveled most of the places of Bangladesh.
In 1933, A K Khan got married in Burma. He was married to the daughter of one Mr. Bari Chowhury, a rich businessman from Chittagong who then was residing in Burma. Mr. Chowdhury was an influential businessman of his time. He had rice mill in Burma. And he was the founder of the then famous Bengal-Burma Steam Navigation Company (BBSNC). In those days, there was almost none who had not heard of the British-India Steam Navigation Company. Chowdhury’s BBSNC was a bold competitor of the BISNC. BBSNC had succeeded in over powering BISNC through careful aggressive competition. And the latter found it quite difficult to attract adequate number of passengers. That was why, BISNC had to persuade passengers with free – lunch and presenting a nice handkerchief.
A K Khan was an advocate of the High Court while he got married. He was in Barishal when the World War Two started. Burma was sure to fall in the hands of the Japanese. This seriously worried Khan’s father in law, Mr. Abdul Bari Chowdhury. He left Burma for Chittagong leaving his big established business there. At that time, Bari Chowdhury’s son was not reasonably grown up to enter into business. For this reason, he requested his son in law A K Khan to take the charge of his established business. Even though Chowdhury lost most his business assets and capital in Burma, he wanted to finance his son in law A K Khan with whatever he had then with him as business capital. The small amount of capital that he could recover from Burma was also around several lakh rupees.
A K Khan never dreamt of becoming a businessman in his life. But the sudden request of his respected father in law and the capital provided by him opened an opportunity to him which he could not ignore.
He was the eldest son of his father who then was about to retire. He was required to maintain his parental family. The proposal of business brought him a ray of hope. This is how A K Khan came first in the field of business. A K Khan’s place in business would have been impossible without the help of his father in law. Meanwhile, he appeared twice in the ICS examination and succeeded in securing first position among the Bengali Muslims. During the World War Two, A K Khan emerged as a construction contractor and in the initial period only, he earned quite substantial success in his business.
The colonial British rulers left the country in 1947, when A K Khan rightly realized the need for industrialization of the newly independent country for establishing strong economic foundation. He identified that large number of employment opportunities can only be crated through promoting a sizable number of industries in the country. Thinking all these, he decided to set up industrial units.
The first attempt in this regard, was the establishment in the year 1952, a match factory with a capital or Rs 4 lakh in the Kalurghat area of Chittagong. Through this match factory A K Khan, emerged as a industrialist. Afterwards, in the same area, he established a ply wood factory with Rs. 2.5 lakh as capital. During the same period, the biggest project he established was the Chittagong Textile Mills. The mill went in to production in 1952, with a capacity of 25000 spindles. The amount invested in this enterprise was Rs. 5 crore. That time, it was quite a big industrial venture and a very bold initiative.
The time A K Khan was establishing industries in the country; it was simply difficult to do so for various reasons. Those days, even industrial raw materials, not to speak of machinery, had to be imported from abroad. For the textile mills he established, he had to bring rods and cements from distant places like Lahore and Hyderabad respectively.
In the process of setting up industries and in managing those, A K Khan faced various types of hurdles and difficulties at every step. Banks (mostly of west Pakistani origin) in those days, were never interested to help East Pakistani Entrepreneurs in their business or industrial ventures. After Continuous effort, he failed to procure industrial loan from non-East Pakistani Banks operating in East Pakistan. At last, he approached a British bank that helped A K Khan in this regard without which he had to manage funds with lot of difficulties.
A K Khan cared his industrial units like his own children. Every day he used to stay at least an hour in each of his industrial units. Most of the crucial decisions were taken by himself. He believed in good owner-employee relations. He emphasized more on increasing production. This he found possible by close supervision and congenial labor owner relations.
He then entered into politics and became the president of the district Muslim League. He became a member of the National Assembly of the former Pakistan in 1947. He was also executive member of Pakistan Muslim League. During Ayub’s regime he was Industry Minister of the then Pakistan from 1958 to 1962. East Pakistani business was smaller in size at that time. The new and inexperienced entrepreneurs of the then East Pakistan used to face huge problem in arranging bank loans. To help the East Pakistani entrepreneurs, he bifurcated the Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation. At the time when he became a minister, there was only one jute mill in the East Pakistan. And with his efforts, the number of jute mills increased to thirty when he left the cabinet. It was during his minister ship when the famous Chittagong Still Mill and the Karnafuli Rayon Mill were established. It may be mentioned here that in those days, there was no bank with East Pakistani ownership. With his efforts Eastern Mercantile Bank (now Pubali Bank) the fist bank of East Pakistani origin was set up. Besides, he established the East Pakistan’s only shipping company named as the Pakistan Steam Navigation Company.
A K Khan influenced the Ayub Govt. to form a Scientific Commission in East Pakistan. As Chaiman of this Commission, he emphasized the need for technical and scientific education in East Pakistan.
A K Khan was married. He had 5 sons. His eldest son was Mr. Zahiruddin Khan who looked after his business as the managing director. He led a very disciplined life wit strong confidence. He was very hardworking which brought him success through out his life. He was fond of gardening. He used to get pleasure from wooden work and used to develop wooden frames. He was a man of good taste in matters of both foods as well as in dresses. His favorite dish was vegetables. He was known as a successful man in all spheres of his life- as an entrepreneur, as social worker, as a politician, as an administrator and also as a leader of his family.
He is no more. May Allah allow him peace in the life hereafter. We look for may more sons of the soil like A K Khan.