In 1947, at the time of independence, there were
921 large scale industrial ur1ts producing cotton textile, jute, sugar, cement,
glass, cigarettes, matches, chemical goods and iron products in the
sub-continent. There were 11.5 lac people working in all these industries.
Pakistan received only 34 industrial units with employment capacity of only
26,500 workers. These units were producing cotton textile, cement, glass,
matches, flour, and rice husking mills,
At the time of partition, West Pakistan had an
area, which produced a large share of agricultural, forest and animal products,
while former East Pakistan was main producer of Jute, but have not even a
single Jute factory. All Jute factories were located in Calcutta (India). In
West Pakistan, cotton was produced at large scale but it had no big factories
to process and manufacture cotton. They were all situated in the areas, which went to the share
of India.
The Government of Pakistan, .being aware of the
importance of industrialization for rapid growth and development, called a
conference in December 1947 to make guidelines for the establishment of locally
produced raw material is used to manufacture goods e.g., cotton, Jute hide and
skin industries. It was suggested that private sector should be induced to set
up all types of industries except defense armament industries, hydroelectric
power and telephone industries.
In 1948, a Development Board was established to
develop infrastructure for the establishment of heavy industries. During the
same year, Industrial Investment & Credit Corporation and an Industrial
Finance Corporation were also set up, to wheel the industrial establishment in
the country. All the incentives accelerate the industrial growth, both in
private and public sector and the process of industrialization successfully
continued up to 1950.