Professional life in Pakistan
Dawood and his three brothers — Suleman Dawood, Siddique Dawood, and Sattar Dawood — started new business activities as Dawood Cooperation Ltd. with an office in Karachi's old business area New Chali and soon after opened a shop on Saleh Muhammad Street (adjacent to Bandar Road) for trading textile and yarn. Therefore, the Dawood Cooperation was established in Pakistan and in Manchester.
In the following decades, particular in the 1950s and 1960s, Dawood founded several businesses and chaired companies in the cotton, textiles, paper, consumer goods, oil, logistics, insurance, jute, chemicals, motorbikes, home appliances, electronics, and fertilisers industries in East and West Pakistan. He rose to prominence at the national level and became a major figure in the industrialisation of Karachi.[5]
Dawood served as vice-chairman of Pakistan Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation (PICIC),[6] one of the first development finance institutions in the country.
In 1968, Dawood partnered with the American company Hercules Inc. A private loan from the World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC) supported the realisation of the fertiliser factory in Sheikhpura. In 1969, the expansion of multiple projects peaked: Dawood Petroleum Ltd started construction of its Oil Terminal at Keamari. The Dawood Jute Mills were set up in East Pakistan, and the construction of the Dawood Hercules Chemical Fertilizer factory started. The IFC invested into the expansion of the Karnaphuli Paper Mills in East Pakistan. The project to assemble motorbikes in Pakistan known as Dawood Yamaha Ltd. started in the same year. At the peak of his economic ventures in 1970, the different entities Dawood chaired employed 35,000 people. It was also the year his mother died.
As a result of the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, assets and properties in East Pakistan of residents of West Pakistan were confiscated and nationalised. Dawood and his family lost factories in Dhaka and Chittagong — including Karnaphuli Paper Mills Limited, Karnaphuli Rayon and Chemical Limited, Dawood Jute Mills Limited and Dawood Shipping Company Limited — accounting for 60% of their industrial undertakings.[7] All investments in the former eastern part of the country were lost. The pressure also increased for the remaining businesses in Pakistan and for Dawood. In January 1972 he and other industrialists were put under house arrest.[8][9][10] The Government initiated nationalisation of many local private companies across the country. In the same year, the nationalisation process affected many industries including those of Dawood and his family.[11] He lost two million rupees and profitable industrial projects, namely Dawood Petroleum Limited and Central Life Insurance Company Limited.[12]
Of the remaining businesses that Dawood chaired, Dawood Hercules Chemical Ltd. and their fertiliser factory in Sheikhupura near Lahore was a profitable joint venture. This, along with the Lawrencepur Woollen and Textile Mills Limited, Dawood Cotton Mills Limited, Burewala Textile Mills Limited, and Dilon Limited, was the backbone of Dawood's economic activities.
In 1975, disappointed with the nationalisation policy of the government, Dawood and his wife left Pakistan for the US. While abroad, he set up an oil exploration company that discovered oil wells in Texas.[14] He then returned to Pakistan in 1977.
By the late 1970s and early 80s, although the corporation was doing well financially, Dawood's siblings parted ways with him.[15]
In 1990, Dawood bought the stake of the American partner of the joint venture and as Chairman, acquired all of Hercules' stakes.
