His father named him Muhammad Latif. He grew up to become Chaudhry Muhammad Latif, but the world knew him as "CM Latif". The king of Syria, Hafiz al-Asad, and the king of Thailand used to come to Lahore to see his factory. Cho En Lai made formal maps of his business model and management principles and took them to China and there on this model. set up factories'
As far as Syria, Thailand, Malaysia and Germany benefited from CM Latif's skills, he was truly a visionary businessman. He was born in Tehsil Batala of East Punjab. But he died during the childhood of Latif Sahib. Latif Sahib received higher education as per his father's wish. He became a mechanical engineer in 1930 and after completing his education, he set up his first mill in two rooms and a verandah. He used to make soap. His younger brother Muhammad Siddique Chaudhary was also with him. Siddique later joined the Navy and after the establishment of Pakistan, he was the first Muslim and local commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Navy from 1953 to 1959. Both Latif and Siddique. He worked day and night and his factory was running. It was the first industry of Muslims in a Hindu majority area. So they had two options 'They would stay in India with their business or they would come to Pakistan sacrificing land, property and bank balance' CM Latif preferred the second option 'They came from Batala to Lahore'. There is a distance of 53 kilometers between Lahore and Batala, but in reality, these two cities are two worlds apart.
Azadi took everything of CM Latif. They left Batala empty-handed and reached Lahore empty-handed. What was the status of their factories in Batala? You can judge it only from this fact, 'Hindus and Sikhs took over their mills', boosted the business and today Batala is the largest industrial zone of Indian Punjab in iron ore' CM Latif anyway came to Pakistan and in 1947 Started a new business, he established an organization in Lahore called Batala Engineering Company, this organization became known as "BICO" in the coming days.
BECO (BATALA ENGINEERING COMPANY ) laid the foundations of industrialization in Pakistan, people shifted from agriculture to industry and factories sprung up in the country. CM Latif introduced numerous new products in the country, from bicycles to aircraft parts, Beko Group was famous from Europe to China and Japan.
The Governments of Japan and People republic of China used to send their people to Beko for training. In 1971, Pakistan broke up and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto became the current president of Pakistan. All major manufacturers across the country have come to the footpath.
Imagine a person who started work in Batala in 1932 and when he became a Seth there, all his assets were looted by Azadi.
He built such a building by placing one brick at a time, which the rulers of the countries of the world who were to become "economic powers" in the future came to see, but then one night all his assets were taken away by the country for which he had sacrificed all his life in 1947. Had sacrificed something. 'You imagine' what will be the mental state of this person? CM Latif was discouraged 'he migrated from Pakistan' he went to Germany and lived in a small village in Germany 'he again formed a company' he did not do any business nor set up a factory' he lived long. He died in 2004 at the age of 97. He continued to garden for the rest of his life.
No one in the world can take plants and flowers away from me.
I am an eyewitness of this tragedy. Dr. Mubasher Hasan announced the nationalization of industries in front of me at Flaties Hotel. The next day, Director Industries Punjab was sitting smoking a cigar in place of CM Latif at the BECO headquarters on Mall Road.
When I interviewed him for the radio, he gave vague answers because he had no idea what BECO manufactures.
After that, he went to CM Latif's bungalow on Kashmir Road and sent a message inside but he refused to meet. Then requested but not accepted.
Without fail, the caravan went on and the heart of the caravan continued to feel
General Zia-ul-Haq requested him to take Beko back in 1977, but CM Latif apologized. In 1972, when Bhutto took BECO from CM Latif, at that time there were six thousand employees in this factory and it was worth billions of rupees annually. used to do business, but this factory later became a graveyard of decline. The government changed its name from BECO to PECO ( PAKISTAN ENGINEERING COMPANY). PECO lost billions of rupees until 1998.
It used to suck the blood of the government every year, 'BECO' was in the backward area of Badami Bagh, due to which this area was once the red hotbed of Pakistani industry and was specially used to show the development of Pakistan to the heads of state coming from all over the world. Badami Bagh used to be brought but a wrong policy of the government and the jealousy and suicidal spirit in our social psychology turned this Lalazar into a graveyard of industry and people not only uprooted the bricks of BECO but they destroyed the foundations.
very informative
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