Practice Area
Banking & Finance
We act for banks, development finance institutions, and borrowers on facilities, security packages, and restructurings, conventional and Islamic. We document credit the way it is later tested — in a Banking Court, with the file open and every signature examined.
A financing document in Pakistan is read twice: once at signing, and once, years later, by a Banking Court judge deciding whether to grant leave to defend. We draft for the second reading. That means clean execution formalities, properly stamped instruments, charges registered in time, and a statement of account that will withstand scrutiny under the Financial Institutions (Recovery of Finances) Ordinance 2001.
For borrowers, the same knowledge runs the other way. We know what a financial institution must prove, where security packages fail, and when a credible restructuring proposal is worth more than a defence.
Islamic and conventional finance sit side by side in most Pakistani portfolios, and the law around both keeps moving. Everything on this page is stated as of mid-2026; we confirm the position, including the constitutional timetable on riba and the State Bank's implementing framework, at the start of each mandate.
How We Serve
We draft and negotiate term and working-capital facilities, syndications, and intercreditor arrangements for lenders and borrowers. Events of default, markup provisions, and acceleration mechanics are written for the day they are invoked, not the day they are signed.
We take and perfect the Pakistani security package: registered and equitable mortgages, hypothecation, pledge, lien, and assignment of receivables. As of mid-2026, charges over company assets must be registered with the registrar under section 100 of the Companies Act 2017 within thirty days, and an unregistered charge is, against the liquidator and other creditors, no charge at all.
We structure and document musharakah, ijarah, diminishing musharakah, and murabaha facilities, and advise conventional lenders converting portfolios to Islamic modes. As of mid-2026 the Constitution, as amended in 2024, commits the state to eliminating riba by 1 January 2028, and we advise on what that timetable means for existing and new facilities.
We act on reschedulings, restructurings, and settlements within the State Bank's Prudential Regulations, and on the rehabilitation of distressed companies under the Corporate Rehabilitation Act 2018. Standstill and compromise agreements are drafted to hold when one creditor breaks ranks.
We sue and defend under the Financial Institutions (Recovery of Finances) Ordinance 2001: recovery suits before the Banking Courts, applications for leave to defend, execution against security, and appeals to the High Court. We also advise institutions and officers where a default file risks turning into a criminal referral.
We advise on licensing and conduct questions under the Banking Companies Ordinance 1962, exchange-control approvals under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act 1947, and obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010. When the State Bank asks questions, we help the institution answer them completely, and once.
Representative Matters
- 20—Acted for a syndicate of banks on the restructuring of PKR —bn facilities extended to an energy-sector borrower.Banking & Finance
- 20—Counsel to the sponsors of a — MW power project on concession, EPC, and financing documentation.Projects & Energy
Illustrative of the practice; matters anonymized consistent with confidentiality obligations.
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