[2][3] Sobhan was a member of Bangladesh's first Planning Commission (1972-1975) and an Adviser to the Caretaker Government led by Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed in 1990-91.

[1] Sobhan went to St. Paul's School, Darjeeling at the age of seven and completed his Senior Cambridge examination in 1950.

In late 1966, Sobhan went to the LSE for his graduate studies but returned, without completing his degree, to Dhaka in March 1969 after the fall of the Ayub regime.

After retirement from BIDS, he set up Centre for Policy Dialogue in 1993, a high-profile private sector think-tank, where he works as its Executive Chairman.

In the 1960s, Sobhan, with a number of other nationalist economists under the intellectual leadership of Nurul Islam, contributed to the drafting of the six-points programme that became the basis for the struggle for autonomy in the then East Pakistan.

During the liberation war (from 26 March to 16 December 1971), he was a roving ambassador for Bangladesh and lobbied in the United States.

Currently he is the chairman of CPD, which is active in open public discussions of policy issues, particularly in the area of governance.