After the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971, Sobhan was appointed a member of the Planning Commission. He 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. Between 1976 and 1979, he was a visiting fellow at Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford. 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.
