ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has marked 39,704 companies “Inactive by Registrar” after they failed to file annual returns and/or financial statements for four years. Marking non-filing companies as inactive will make the corporate register more reliable and help prevent dormant companies from being misused.
The inactive status will appear in the SECP’s system and be visible to banks and other stakeholders. These companies will not be able to open new bank accounts, and their existing accounts will be frozen until they file their overdue documents with the SECP and regain active status. They will also be unable to access financial services or register changes in their directors. The inactive companies include 13,927 in Lahore, 13,859 in Islamabad, 4,868 in Karachi, 2,031 in Peshawar, 1,861 in Multan, 1,384 in Faisalabad, 1,102 in Gilgit, 436 in Quetta and 236 in Sukkur.
Filing annual returns and, where required, financial statements is a legal requirement under the Companies Act, 2017. These filings keep public information about companies, their ownership and their management up to date. The SECP said prolonged non-filing weakens the corporate register and can hinder efforts to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.
The corporate register continues to grow. Pakistan had 317,002 registered companies at the end of September 2026. The SECP registered 43,559 new companies in the previous financial year, 24 percent more than the year before. Company name reservation and incorporation are now fully digital, and 99.9 percent of new companies are registered online.
“A clean and credible registry is the bedrock of trust in the corporate sector. SECP is protecting the integrity of the financial system while giving companies a clear opportunity to return to compliance,” SECP Chairman Dr. Kabir Ahmed Sidhu said.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026