How to Register a Company in Pakistan

If you're starting a business in Pakistan, registering with SECP, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, is what turns your idea into a legal entity that can open a bank account, sign contracts, and hire people in its own name rather than yours personally. It's also the foundation almost everything else on this site builds on: you can't register for PSEB, apply for PSW, or join a chamber of commerce as a company until the company itself legally exists.

This guide walks through the actual process from first decision to certificate in hand, the way we'd explain it to someone sitting across from us for a first consultation, not the abbreviated version that leaves out the parts that actually cause delays.

Step 1: Choose your structure

Most founders choose between a Single Member Company, one shareholder, a Private Limited Company, two or more shareholders and directors, or an AOP/Partnership registration with FBR if there's no plan to take outside investment. Each comes with a different liability and tax picture, and the right one depends on whether you're solo or have a co-founder, whether you're planning to raise money, and how much personal liability protection actually matters for what you're building.

A solo founder who still wants limited liability protection generally wants an SMC rather than forcing a second shareholder into a Private Limited Company just to meet the minimum. Two or more people building something together, particularly if outside investment is even a future possibility, usually lean toward Private Limited from the start, since converting structures later is more involved than registering the right one upfront.

Step 2: Reserve your company name

SECP checks your proposed name against its existing database of registered companies and a list of restricted words that imply government affiliation or require special approval to use. Submitting 2 to 3 alternative names upfront, rather than just one, avoids a second round-trip if your first choice turns out to already be taken or flagged.

Name approvals typically come back within 1 to 3 working days, and once approved, the name is reserved for 60 days, giving you a window to complete the rest of the filing without the name expiring or becoming available to someone else.

Step 3: Prepare and file your incorporation documents

This is the part that actually takes the most care: drafting a Memorandum of Association, which states your company's objectives, and Articles of Association, which set out how the company will be governed internally. Both get filed through SECP's eServices portal alongside director and shareholder CNICs and your registered office address.

Vague or overly broad business objectives in the Memorandum are a common reason SECP queries a filing before approving it, and a registered office address that can't be verified is another. Neither is hard to avoid once you know SECP checks for them, but they're easy to overlook filing for the first time without anyone flagging it in advance.

Step 4: Receive your Certificate of Incorporation

With complete documents and no queries back from SECP, this step typically takes 3 to 7 working days from filing. The Certificate of Incorporation is what actually makes the company exist as a legal entity, and it's the document you'll need to open a business bank account and start operating in the company's name.

What comes right after incorporation

Most companies move on to FBR registration for an NTN immediately after incorporation, since very little can happen, opening a bank account, issuing invoices, hiring, without it. Depending on the business, PSEB registration for IT and software businesses, or PSW registration for importers and exporters, typically follows once the NTN is in place.

It's worth knowing upfront that incorporation is the beginning of an ongoing relationship with SECP, not a one-time event. Annual returns, director changes, and other compliance filings start being owed from the company's first year, which is a separate topic worth understanding before it becomes an overdue filing.

A realistic timeline end to end

Putting the whole process together: 1 to 3 working days for name approval, then 3 to 7 working days for the actual filing and certificate once documents are submitted, assuming nothing comes back queried. In practice, most straightforward registrations are complete within two weeks of a founder actually sitting down to start the process, with the rest of that time spent gathering documents and making the structure decision rather than waiting on SECP itself.

The single biggest lever you have over that timeline isn't SECP's processing speed; it's how complete your documents and name options are on the first submission. Founders who come to the first consultation with a clear sense of their structure, two or three name ideas, and their director and shareholder details ready tend to move through the whole process noticeably faster than those figuring it out step by step as they go.

What it actually costs

SECP's government fee scales with your authorized share capital and changes periodically, so there's no single fixed number that stays accurate for long. A consultant's service fee for handling the filing is separate from that government fee, and the two should always be quoted separately so you know exactly what's going to SECP and what's paying for the work of preparing and filing everything correctly.

Questions people ask before registering

Can I register a company without visiting SECP's office in person? In almost all cases, yes, the filing runs entirely through SECP's eServices portal. Is there a minimum capital requirement? For most ordinary businesses, no general statutory minimum applies, though a handful of regulated sectors do have specific capital rules. Can I change my company's name later if I need to? Yes, though it involves its own SECP filing and isn't something to plan around lightly given the cost and disruption of rebranding.

Pak Register handles the full company registration in Pakistan process end to end, from the first consultation through to the Certificate of Incorporation, including the Memorandum and Articles of Association drafting most founders find the most confusing part of the whole process. See the service page for documents, fees, and FAQs, or get in touch for a free consultation.