Registering a Partnership Firm or an LLP in Pakistan

A partnership is the relation between persons who have agreed to share the profits of a business carried on by all or any of them acting for all, and the partners are collectively a firm (Partnership Act 1932, section 4). Every partner is liable, jointly with the others and also severally, for all acts of the firm done while he or she is a partner (section 25).

An LLP is a body corporate, separate from its partners, with perpetual succession (LLP Act 2017, section 3). Its obligations are its own, and a partner is not personally liable for them merely because he or she is a partner, though each partner answers for his or her own wrongful acts and liability is unlimited for fraud (sections 15 to 17).

A firm may be registered at any time by sending or delivering a statement in the prescribed form, with the prescribed fee, to the Registrar of the area where any place of business of the firm is or will be (section 58(1)). The statement gives the firm name, the principal and any other places of business, the date each partner joined, the partners’ full names and permanent addresses, and the duration of the firm.

All the partners, or their specially authorised agents, sign and verify the statement (section 58(1) and (2)). The Registrar then records an entry in the Register of Firms (section 59), and a certified copy of that entry proves the registration (section 68(2)). Signing a statement with particulars one knows to be false or incomplete is punishable with up to three months’ imprisonment, a fine, or both (section 70).

The firm name may not use “Jinnah”, “Quaid-e-Azam” or words implying government sanction or patronage without the Provincial Government’s written consent, the name or initials of the United Nations or the World Health Organization without their authorisation, or any word the province has declared undesirable (section 58(3) to (3C)).

Partners may settle their mutual rights and duties by contract (section 11). Where the deed is silent, the Act decides: partners take no remuneration and share profits and losses equally (section 13), and a partnership with no agreed duration is a partnership at will (section 7).

Unless trade usage says otherwise, a partner’s implied authority does not cover referring a dispute to arbitration, opening a bank account for the firm in his or her own name, compromising a claim, or buying or selling immovable property for the firm (section 19(2)). The deed can extend or restrict that authority (section 20), so it should say who may sign, bank, borrow and settle disputes. It usually also covers capital, drawings, decision-making, admission, retirement and expulsion of partners, and what happens on death or dissolution.

In Punjab, the district offices that register firms state that the deed is written on stamp paper of Rs 1,000 or on e-stamp paper of the “46(b)” category; article 46 of the schedule to the Stamp Act 1899 is the entry for partnership instruments. Check the duty on the day you buy the stamp paper.

In Punjab, firms are registered by the Industries Department; at district level the District Officer (Industries, Prices, Weights and Measures) is the Registrar of Firms. Applications go through the Punjab Business Registration Portal (register.business.punjab.gov.pk), which the district offices say was launched in Lahore in November 2017. They list these requirements:

• an application on Form-I;
• the partners’ signatures and statement witnessed by a gazetted officer, magistrate, notary public or advocate;
• copies of the CNICs of the partners and the witnesses;
• the partnership deed on stamp paper; and
• the fee, deposited under head of account C03545 with the department’s challan form.

Observations on an application are sent by email and SMS.

Islamabad also asks for proof of an office in a commercial area and for all partners and witnesses to appear before the Registrar with original CNICs. In Sindh, the Partnership (Sindh Amendment) Act 2022 (Sindh Act No. XXXI of 2023) allows filing on a portal, with the certificate due within seven working days of completing the portal formalities. Confirm fees with the Registrar before paying.

The Act sets no penalty for staying unregistered. Instead, section 69 closes the courts:

• a partner cannot sue the firm, or a present or former partner, to enforce a right under a contract or the Act unless the firm is registered and the partner suing is shown in the Register (section 69(1));
• the firm cannot sue a third party on a contract unless it is registered and the partners suing are shown in the Register (section 69(2)); and
• the same applies to a set-off or other proceeding to enforce a contractual right (section 69(3)).

The bar does not stop a suit for dissolution or for accounts of a dissolved firm (section 69(3)(a)), and does not apply to firms with no place of business in Pakistan (section 69(4)(a)). Because the partners who sue must appear in the Register, record new partners before you need the courts.

Source: Industries, Commerce and Investment Department, Punjab. A partner’s retirement or expulsion, and dissolution, also need public notice: notice to the Registrar plus publication in the official Gazette and a vernacular newspaper circulating in the district (section 72(a)).

Two or more persons associated for a lawful business with a view to profit subscribe an incorporation document; the LLP has a registered office; the document is filed with the fees SECP prescribes; and a statement of compliance is filed by an advocate, a chartered or cost and management accountant engaged in the formation, or a subscriber (section 5(1)). The document states the name, main business, province of the registered office, each partner’s name and residential address, the designated partners, and that liability is limited (section 5(2)). The name must end with “LLP” and must not deceive or copy an existing name (section 6).

Any individual, body corporate or company may be a partner, except an individual of unsound mind so found by a court or an undischarged insolvent (section 8(1)). At least one designated partner must be an individual resident in Pakistan, meaning present for six months in the preceding year; with corporate partners, two individuals act and one must be resident (section 10(1)). Since 2020 the LLP must also keep its partners’ ultimate beneficial owner particulars up to date (section 8(2)).

The Registrar’s certificate is conclusive evidence of registration (section 7(4)); registration must be refused if the business is undesirable, unlawful, deceptive or contrary to national security (section 7(5)). SECP’s Limited Liability Partnership Regulations 2018 set the forms, fit-and-proper rules for designated partners, accounts and audit, and conversion.

Source: Limited Liability Partnership Act 2017, Pakistan Code.

Under the Second Schedule to the LLP Act, a firm can convert only if the LLP’s partners are all the firm’s partners and no one else (paragraph 2). All the partners sign a statement giving the firm’s name, registration details, that it can pay its debts as they fall due, and that all its creditors agree, and file it with the incorporation document (paragraph 3). On registration the firm’s property, rights and liabilities vest in the LLP, and the firm is deemed dissolved and removed from the Register of Firms (paragraph 6); pending proceedings and contracts continue (paragraphs 8 to 12). Plan for two points:

• approvals, permits and licences issued to the firm do not pass under these provisions (paragraph 14); and
• former partners stay personally liable, jointly and severally with the LLP, for the firm’s earlier liabilities (paragraph 15).

For twelve months the LLP’s correspondence must state the conversion and the firm’s name and number (paragraph 16). A private company can convert under the Third Schedule if no security interest over its assets subsists and its shareholders become the only partners (paragraph 2).

A firm name on the Register of Firms, or an LLP name at SECP, gives no trade mark rights. Trade marks are registered separately with the Intellectual Property Organization of Pakistan (IPO-Pakistan) under the Trade Marks Ordinance 2001, so check the name before you order signage.

Our guide to trademark search and clearance in Pakistan explains how, and the official fees are in our trademark registration cost and timeline guide. At Raza & Associates, Hashim Raza is a Registered Trade Mark Agent with IPO-Pakistan (Trade Marks Registry), Reg. No. TM-215/20, on the Register of Trade Mark Agents since 25 January 2019.

For income tax, an “association of persons” includes a firm and, since the Finance Act 2026, a limited liability partnership (Income Tax Ordinance 2001, section 80(2)(a)). Each obtains its own National Tax Number (NTN) from the Federal Board of Revenue. Where an LLP’s income is exempt, a partner’s share of its profits is included in the partner’s own income (section 92(4A)). Sales tax registration is separate. See our tax services and compliance page for NTN registration and the compliance calendar for partnership firms.

No association or partnership of more than twenty persons may carry on a business for gain unless registered as a company under the Companies Act 2017; a person guilty of the offence is also personally liable for the business’s liabilities (section 9(1) and (2)). Joint family businesses and partnerships of lawyers, accountants or other professions that may not practise as limited companies are excepted (section 9(3)). If you expect to pass twenty owners, see company registration in Pakistan.

Raza & Associates is an intellectual property and corporate law firm, established in 2005, with its head office in Lahore. Our company registration practice covers business formation, including incorporation, compliance and advice on corporate structure. To discuss a matter, contact us.

Sources, read on 13 October 2026: the Partnership Act 1932 (Punjab Code), the LLP Act 2017 (Pakistan Code, updated to 15 October 2021), the Companies Act 2017, the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 (FBR text amended to 30 June 2026), and the official pages cited above. Fees and procedures change, so check them before you file. This guide is not legal advice on any particular matter.