Insights

Regulatory & Compliance

Everything the firm has published on regulatory & compliance — newest first.

BriefingAfter Incorporation: The First 90 Days of ComplianceThe tax, banking, filing and employment obligations that fall due in a Pakistani company's first quarter — sequenced, with the statutes that impose them.12 July 2026 · 7 min read

BriefingAnnual SECP Filings: A Plain-Language GuideWhat a Pakistani company must file with SECP every year, what only needs filing when something changes, and how the AGM date drives almost everything else.12 July 2026 · 7 min read

BriefingAre E-Signatures Legally Binding in Pakistan?Yes for most commercial documents, no for a specific statutory list — and the practical risk lies less in validity than in proving who clicked.12 July 2026 · 7 min read

BriefingBranch vs Subsidiary: How Foreign Companies Enter PakistanThree doors into Pakistan — liaison office, branch, subsidiary — and the permissions, tax treatment and exit mechanics behind each, compared side by side.12 July 2026 · 6 min read

BriefingEOBI and Social Security: When Your Obligations Actually StartRegistration with EOBI and the provincial social security institution is triggered by facts, not filings — and the start dates employers assume for themselves are almost always later than the ones the statutes impose.12 July 2026 · 7 min read

BriefingHow Foreign Investors Get Money Into — and Out of — Pakistani StartupsThe exchange-control mechanics of an inbound startup investment, step by step — and why the exit is decided by paperwork done at the entry.12 July 2026 · 6 min read

BriefingNDAs in Pakistan: What They Can and Cannot DoPakistan has no trade-secrets statute, so the NDA is the whole game — here is what a well-drafted one actually delivers, and where it runs out.12 July 2026 · 7 min read

BriefingPenalty Clauses: Why Yours Is a Ceiling, Not a HammerSection 74 of the Contract Act turns every stipulated damages figure into a maximum, not an entitlement — here is how to draft one that a court will actually award.12 July 2026 · 8 min read

BriefingPreparing for Pakistan's Data-Protection Law Before It ArrivesThe Personal Data Protection Bill is still a draft — but most of the compliance work it will demand can be started, and largely finished, under the rules that bind you today.12 July 2026 · 6 min read

BriefingSECP Name Reservation: What Gets Approved, What Gets RejectedThe rules the registrar actually applies to proposed company names under the Companies Act 2017 and the Companies (Incorporation) Regulations 2017 — and how to pick a name that clears them the first time.12 July 2026 · 7 min read

BriefingThe Inquiry Committee Your Company Is Required to HaveThe Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, 2010 requires every employer — of any size — to have a standing inquiry committee before any complaint exists, and most Pakistani companies discover this on the day it is too late.12 July 2026 · 7 min read

BriefingRegistering a Trademark in Pakistan, Step by StepFrom clearance search to renewal, the full life of a Pakistani trademark application under the Trade Marks Ordinance 2001 — what happens at each stage, what can go wrong, and which documents each step needs.12 July 2026 · 6 min read

BriefingUBO Declarations: Who Counts as an Ultimate Beneficial OwnerHow section 123A of the Companies Act 2017 defines an ultimate beneficial owner, what the register and declaration actually require, and how to trace ownership through layered structures.12 July 2026 · 6 min read

BriefingData, privacy, and the coming Pakistani data-protection regime: preparing nowPakistan still has no general data-protection statute. The obligations that already bind you, the draft law waiting in the wings, and the work worth doing before it arrives.8 July 2026 · 5 min read

Client AlertSECP circulars: second-quarter 2026 digestThe second quarter is annual-meeting season, and the SECP's output tracked it: meeting formats, electronic dividends and annual filings; this alert flags the compliance calendar that follows.5 July 2026 · 3 min read

Client AlertFinance Act 2026: what boards need to knowThe Finance Act 2026 took effect on 1 July; this alert flags the items that belong on the next board agenda — rates, withholding duties, and the exposures that attach to directors personally.2 July 2026 · 3 min read

The First ReadingThe First Reading — No. 3The Finance Act 2026 is law, the new fiscal year resets the compliance calendar, and the half-year enforcement record shows where 2026-27 risk sits.1 July 2026 · 4 min read

PerspectiveThe first call: what clients get right, and wrong, in the first ten minutesThe ten minutes after a raid, a notice, or an account freeze decide more than most hearings. Here is what the good calls have in common.24 June 2026 · 5 min read

BriefingRelated-party transactions under the Companies Act 2017: the compliance architectureSection 208 turns every deal with a director, sponsor or group company into a governance event: who must approve it, what must be recorded, and where the personal liability sits.21 June 2026 · 5 min read

Client AlertExport SROs and rebate schemes: the current landscape for exportersThe Export Facilitation Scheme has absorbed the old duty-suspension regimes while the tax treatment of exporters has hardened — the paperwork now decides the economics.17 June 2026 · 3 min read

Client AlertPECA takedown procedure: the current mechanicsThe 2025 amendment moved online blocking and removal powers from the PTA to a new authority — here is the current path of a takedown order, and the appeal that follows it.16 June 2026 · 3 min read

Client AlertCCP enforcement: deceptive-marketing orders under Section 10Section 10 of the Competition Act reaches ordinary advertising, and the Commission's orders show it will penalise marketing claims a company cannot substantiate — whoever wrote them.10 June 2026 · 3 min read

BriefingDoing the deal in Pakistan: a foreign investor's map of approvalsWhich consents a foreign acquirer of a Pakistani business actually needs, in what order, and which ones decide whether the money can ever come back out.4 June 2026 · 5 min read

The First ReadingThe First Reading — No. 2Budget month opens with a Finance Bill days away; also merger filings, privatization diligence, AML supervision, and a reminder on enforcing foreign awards.2 June 2026 · 4 min read

Client AlertIPO-Pakistan filing practice: what changed for applicantsOnline filing, an electronic Journal and Madrid designations have changed the mechanics of getting intellectual property onto the register in Pakistan.27 May 2026 · 3 min read

Client AlertThe Punjab Defamation Act 2024 and corporate communicationsPunjab's new tribunals can decree substantial damages on a preliminary basis — a company's public statements in the province now carry summary-judgment risk.22 May 2026 · 3 min read

Client AlertSBP prudential update: digital banking and paymentsPakistan's payments perimeter now has several doors — digital bank, EMI, PSO/PSP, bank partnership — and the licence a business model needs is the first legal question, not the last.20 May 2026 · 3 min read

PerspectiveThe general counsel's loneliest decisionsEscalate or absorb, disclose or wait, report or resign: the calls that define a general counsel arrive without company.19 May 2026 · 5 min read

BriefingVirtual assets and the new regulatory architecture: where crypto stands in Pakistan nowPakistan has moved from a banking prohibition to a licensing statute in under two years — what a business holding, accepting or building on virtual assets may lawfully do in mid-2026, and what it still may not.18 May 2026 · 5 min read

Client AlertREIT regulations: an update for sponsors and investorsThe overhaul of the REIT Regulations lowered the entry bar for sponsors — the live questions now sit in the tax sunset dates, the lock-ins, and the discipline the structure imposes.6 May 2026 · 3 min read

The First ReadingThe First Reading — No. 1Ten developments in one sitting: where constitutional challenges now go, NAB references after the restored amendments, PECA's new machinery, and the FBR's arrest powers.5 May 2026 · 4 min read

BriefingMerger control before the CCP: thresholds, timelines, and tactical filingPakistan's merger regime is suspensory: if your transaction crosses the thresholds, you may not close before clearance, and the filing strategy belongs in the term sheet.30 April 2026 · 5 min read

Client AlertForeign company registration under Part XII: an updateA foreign company with a place of business in Pakistan has thirty days to register — the filings are digital now, but the deadline, the permissions, and the annual obligations are not softer.22 April 2026 · 3 min read

Client AlertTrade mark opposition practice: current timelines and tacticsThe window to oppose is two months from publication in the Trade Marks Journal — after that, the party that manages the timetable usually holds the advantage.22 April 2026 · 3 min read

Client AlertFBR's audit-selection policy: who gets picked, and what to doAudit selection is now driven by risk parameters, not the ballot drum — the taxpayers who reconcile their own data first fare best.18 April 2026 · 3 min read

BriefingSBP's foreign-exchange perimeter: repatriation, royalties, and the approvals that matterEvery cross-border payment out of Pakistan passes through a gate; this briefing maps which gates open on documentation, which need State Bank approval, and which stay shut.16 April 2026 · 5 min read

Client AlertSECP circulars: first-quarter 2026 digestThe SECP's first-quarter output pressed on beneficial-ownership records, electronic filing and routine penalty enforcement; this alert flags what company secretaries should action now.8 April 2026 · 3 min read

Client AlertCompany incorporation: changes to the SECP regimeIncorporation now runs end-to-end through SECP's eZfile portal, with tax registration attached — the speed is real, and the compliance questions have moved downstream.25 March 2026 · 3 min read

Client AlertLabour-law compliance: the filings employers missLabour law is provincial now — the employer that registered once, a decade ago, is often unregistered somewhere it operates today.25 March 2026 · 3 min read

BriefingThe dawn raid protocol: the first six hours decide the next six yearsWhen NAB, the FIA, the CCP or the FBR arrive unannounced, what your reception desk does in the first hour will shape the investigation more than anything your lawyers file later.18 March 2026 · 5 min read

Client AlertCCP enforcement: recent cartel penalty decisionsThe Competition Commission imposes turnover-based penalties for cartel conduct, and the most common route in is an ordinary trade-association meeting; here is where enforcement stands.12 March 2026 · 3 min read

Client AlertMinimum wage and social-security contributions: current rates and exposureThe rates reset every July with the provincial budgets — the exposure for under-payment and under-contribution accrues monthly and rarely goes away.26 February 2026 · 3 min read

Client AlertSBP prudential update: corporate and SME financingThe State Bank's prudential regulations bind banks, but borrowers feel them in every term sheet: exposure limits, financial covenants and documentation standards all flow through into facility terms.18 February 2026 · 3 min read

BriefingThe director's liability map: every hat, every exposure, one chartA director of a Pakistani company wears at least six hats — each with its own statute, regulator and penalty. Here is the full map.10 February 2026 · 5 min read

Client AlertStamp duty digitization in Sindh: e-stamping in practiceSindh's e-stamping system now covers the instruments commercial parties actually sign — and the ad valorem duty on contracts makes the classification a pricing question, not a formality.5 February 2026 · 3 min read

BriefingPECA after the 2025 amendments: what companies can no longer say — and what they still canOne year into the amended Act: the new false-information offence, the new regulators, and where a company's public statements now sit.27 January 2026 · 5 min read

Client AlertImport SROs: the current landscape for importersTariff reform is thinning the additional-duty and regulatory-duty stack — but every concession that survives still turns on its conditions.20 January 2026 · 3 min read

Client AlertStamp duty digitization in Punjab: e-stamping in practicePunjab has retired the stamp vendor — the e-stamp certificate is now how an instrument gets stamped, and how a counterparty or a court checks it.20 January 2026 · 3 min read

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