Most first-time founders treat company registration like a chore — a regulatory tax on the way to building. Done well, it's a forcing function: it makes you decide your equity structure, your registered address, your governance, and your director liabilities before you've earned the right to be sloppy about any of them.
Here's the current sequence in Pakistan, post-2025 SECP modernisation, written for a founder who wants to do it themselves rather than pay a Rs 80,000 service.
Step 1: Reserve your name
Go to SECP's eServices portal at eservices.secp.gov.pk. Create an individual account. Use Name Reservation to check 3–5 candidate names. Approval is usually 1–3 working days. The fee is Rs 200 per name.
A name gets rejected when it's identical to an existing entity, or contains words like "Bank", "Insurance", "University", or "Foundation" without the relevant licence.
Step 2: Decide your share structure
Before you register, decide:
- Authorised capital (default Rs 100,000 — increase later as needed)
- Paid-up capital (typically Rs 1,000–10,000 for first year)
- Director(s) — minimum 2 for a private limited
- Subscriber(s) — typically same as directors for early stage
The single most common mistake: creating a 50/50 split between two co-founders without a vesting schedule. We'll write a separate piece on this. For now: don't.
Step 3: File the incorporation form
After name approval, file the Form-1 (Incorporation) electronically via the same portal. You'll attach:
- CNICs of all directors and subscribers
- Memorandum of Association (MoA) — describes the business objectives
- Articles of Association (AoA) — internal governance rules
SECP provides standard MoA/AoA templates. They're fine for 95% of cases. The fee depends on authorised capital — Rs 1,800 for Rs 100,000 capital is typical.
Step 4: Receive your Certificate of Incorporation
SECP usually issues this in 4–7 working days from filing. Download the digitally signed PDF. This is your company's birth certificate — every later document references it.
Step 5: NTN registration with FBR
With the incorporation certificate in hand, register for an NTN (National Tax Number) via FBR's IRIS portal at iris.fbr.gov.pk. Companies are issued NTNs immediately after registration.
Step 6: Open a corporate bank account
Take to your bank:
- Certificate of Incorporation
- NTN certificate
- MoA & AoA
- CNICs of directors
- Board resolution authorising account opening (one-page document, easy to draft)
Account is usually open in 5–10 working days.
Where founders consistently lose two weeks
- Wrong director residency setup. If one director lives abroad, additional FBR forms are required and often filed late.
- Skipping the MoA review. The standard template's "objects clause" is generic. Read it once — if you're a tech company, your objects shouldn't list "agricultural commodities trading."
- Delaying the bank account. Some founders wait until they have customers. Banks then ask for a year of dormant company filings before opening. Open immediately.
The total picture
| Step | Time | Cost (PKR) |
|---|---|---|
| Name reservation | 1–3 days | 200 |
| Incorporation filing | 4–7 days | 1,800–10,000 |
| NTN registration | 0–3 days | Free |
| Bank account | 5–10 days | Bank-dependent |
| Total | 2–3 weeks | 2,000–10,200 |
Done thoughtfully, registration is the cheapest two weeks of compounding decisions you'll ever make. Done badly, it's the source of the next eighteen months of avoidable friction.
