Service
SECP Incorporation
End-to-end company incorporation before the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan — name reservation, drafting, e-filing, and the registers and first filings after the certificate. One fixed-scope mandate from decision to operating company.
Incorporating a company in Pakistan is genuinely fast when the application is complete and genuinely slow when it is not. The mechanics run through SECP's eZfile portal under the Companies Act, 2017 and the Companies (Incorporation) Regulations, 2017: reserve a name, file the memorandum and articles with subscriber and director particulars, pay the fee, receive the certificate. For a prepared domestic applicant, the whole sequence is measured in days [TO BE VERIFIED BY REVIEWING LAWYER]. The delays almost always come from decisions made badly before filing — a name that fails the criteria, capital set without thought, a foreign director whose clearance nobody anticipated.
Our incorporation service is built around that observation. The valuable work happens before the portal: settling whether the vehicle is a private limited company or an SMC, sizing authorized capital against the shareholding actually needed, drafting a memorandum that matches the real business, and adapting the model articles deliberately rather than by default. A company expecting co-founders and investors needs different articles from a wholly owned subsidiary; the difference costs far less now than at the first funding round.
The filing itself we run end to end — reservation, application, queries, certificate — and where foreign shareholders or directors are involved, we manage the security-clearance and document-legalisation workstreams that set the true timetable. Then comes the part most incorporation services skip: the handover. A certificate is not an operating company. We write up the statutory registers, paper the first board actions, hand over a filing calendar, and set out the first ninety days — bank account, subscription remittance, tax and employer registrations, auditor where required — so the record is clean from day one rather than reconstructed years later in someone's due diligence.
This page reflects the position as of July 2026. SECP's regulations, forms, fees, and processing practice change; timeline and fee statements are bracketed for verification, and we confirm current requirements on the day we file.
What You Get
The deliverables, stated up front.
- A pre-filing consultation settling company type, name candidates, authorized capital, shareholding, and directors before anything is submitted.
- Name availability screening against the register and the prohibited-names criteria, and the reservation application itself.
- A memorandum of association drafted around your actual principal line of business, and articles adapted from the SECP model articles — or drafted where the model does not fit.
- Preparation and electronic filing of the complete incorporation application on SECP's eZfile portal, including subscriber and director particulars and the declaration of compliance.
- Handling of SECP queries and objections until the certificate of incorporation issues.
- Coordination of the security-clearance process where any subscriber or director is a foreign national or foreign company.
- The company's National Tax Number, generated through the combined SECP–FBR incorporation process [CURRENT INTEGRATION — TO BE VERIFIED BY REVIEWING LAWYER].
- First statutory registers set up — members, directors and officers — with a minute book opened and first board actions papered.
- A twelve-month filing calendar and a first-ninety-days memo: bank account, tax registrations, employer registrations, and auditor appointment where required.
How It Works
The process, stage by stage.
1
Structure and name
We settle the decisions the forms assume you have already made: private limited or single member company, authorized capital, who subscribes for what, the directors and first chief executive, and the registered office. Name candidates are screened against the register and the statutory criteria — identical or deceptively similar names, or names suggesting state patronage, are refused.
2
Name reservation
The reservation application goes in through eZfile. SECP typically decides within a few working days, and the reserved name is held for a fixed period within which the incorporation application must follow [CURRENT PROCESSING TIME AND RESERVATION VALIDITY — TO BE VERIFIED BY REVIEWING LAWYER].
3
Drafting
The memorandum states the principal line of business; the articles govern how the company actually runs — share transfers, board process, quorum, pre-emption. We adapt the SECP model articles where they fit and depart deliberately where they don't, particularly for co-founder companies expecting investors.
4
Filing and queries
The incorporation application is filed electronically with subscriber CNICs or passports, director particulars, the registered office, and the declaration of compliance. Where SECP raises objections, we respond until the application is complete. Where foreign subscribers or directors are involved, the Ministry of Interior security-clearance process runs alongside and is usually the pacing item [CURRENT SECP PRACTICE ON PROCEEDING PENDING CLEARANCE — TO BE VERIFIED BY REVIEWING LAWYER].
5
Certificate and handover
For straightforward domestic applications, the certificate typically issues within a few working days of a complete filing [CURRENT STANDARD PROCESSING TIME — TO BE VERIFIED BY REVIEWING LAWYER]. We then hand over a working company, not a PDF: registers written up, first board minutes done, the filing calendar set, and the first-ninety-days memo in your inbox.
The Legal Framework
The law this work runs on.
- Companies Act, 2017
- The governing statute: company types, the incorporation mechanism, name criteria, directors' and chief executive requirements, and the filing obligations that begin at incorporation. As of July 2026 it remains the operative company law of Pakistan.
- Companies (Incorporation) Regulations, 2017
- SECP's regulations prescribing the incorporation forms, name-reservation procedure, and prohibited-names criteria. SECP has been consolidating its regulations; we confirm whether these or a successor set — including the Companies Regulations, 2024 — govern at the date of filing [CURRENT OPERATIVE REGULATIONS — TO BE VERIFIED BY REVIEWING LAWYER].
- SECP eZfile portal
- The Commission's online filing system, through which name reservation and incorporation run end to end as of July 2026. Subscribers and directors need registered credentials; physical visits to a Company Registration Office are the exception, not the rule.
- Companies (Registration Offices and Fees) Regulations, 2018
- The fee schedule for name reservation and incorporation, which scales with authorized capital and filing mode [REGULATION TITLE AND CURRENT FEE SCHEDULE — TO BE VERIFIED BY REVIEWING LAWYER].
Statutory references are stated as of the page’s as-of date and flagged where verification is pending; the law moves, and the current position should be confirmed before relying on it.
Common Mistakes
The errors we see most — and their price.
- Proposing a name that fails the prohibited-names criteria and losing the timetable to a refusal that screening would have caught.
- Copying a memorandum from another company without thought, so the stated principal line of business does not match what the company will actually do.
- Setting authorized capital at the bare minimum to save fees, then paying for an increase within the year when shares must be issued to a co-founder or investor.
- Filing subscriber particulars that do not exactly match the CNIC or passport, which is the most common avoidable source of SECP objections.
- Ignoring the security-clearance requirement for foreign subscribers and directors, and building a commercial timetable the clearance process cannot meet.
- Treating the certificate as the finish line — no registers, no first board minutes, no auditor where required, and the first annual return missed.
- Leaving the registered office at an address nobody checks, so statutory notices arrive unread.
Questions, Answered
What clients ask about secp incorporation.
Name reservation and the certificate are each typically decided within a few working days of a complete filing for domestic applications [CURRENT PROCESSING TIMES — TO BE VERIFIED BY REVIEWING LAWYER]. Where a foreign national or foreign company appears as subscriber or director, the Ministry of Interior security clearance is the pacing item, and its timeline is outside the applicant's control.
As of July 2026 the ordinary case runs through SECP's eZfile portal end to end — name reservation, application, fee, and certificate. You will need credentials and identity documents for each subscriber and director; you will rarely need a trip to a Company Registration Office.
There is no general minimum under the Companies Act, 2017. Authorized capital is a choice, not a threshold — the fee scales with it, and the practical question is how many shares you need available for founders and near-term investors, not how little you can state.
In most sectors, yes — wholly foreign-owned private companies are routine, subject to security clearance for foreign subscribers and directors and to sector-specific restrictions. Foreign corporate shareholders should budget time for legalised or apostilled documents from the home jurisdiction.
For a domestic incorporation: CNICs for subscribers and directors, three name candidates, the registered office address, the shareholding split, and a plain description of what the business will do. For foreign participants, passports and corporate documents, legalised or apostilled.
The SECP process generates the company's National Tax Number registration with the FBR as part of incorporation [CURRENT INTEGRATION — TO BE VERIFIED BY REVIEWING LAWYER]. Sales tax registration, where needed, is a separate step covered in the first-ninety-days memo.
Incorporation is a fixed-scope mandate priced in the engagement letter, plus SECP's own fees, which scale with authorized capital [FEE STRUCTURE — TO BE CONFIRMED BY THE FIRM]. Foreign-shareholder incorporations carry more coordination work and are scoped accordingly.
Who To Call
Related Insights
Prepared by The First Counsel · As of 2026-07-12 · Pending professional review — statements flagged in the text are being verified
This publication is provided for general information only. It is not legal advice, and neither reading it nor corresponding with the firm about it creates a lawyer–client relationship. The position stated must be verified against current law before it is relied upon.