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Guide

We want to set up a charity
or a trust in Pakistan

Many people abroad support a school, a clinic or a water scheme in the village they came from. At some point the money needs a body to hold it, with accounts and people who are answerable. This page shows the forms such a body can take in Pakistan, what each needs, and how it is set up from abroad.

Where this applies This page covers a charity, trust, society or not-for-profit company set up in Pakistan. Rules on sending money into Pakistan for such a body, and on what the country you live in allows, are separate matters.

A hand pump standing in a field in rural Pakistan
Photograph: Dr Photographer

What this is about

There is more than one form. A trust is created by a deed and registered locally. A society is registered with the provincial registrar. A not-for-profit company is licensed and registered by the companies regulator, with a minimum number of members and rules about how money is used and reported. Each has different paperwork, different reporting, and different standing when a bank or a donor asks who you are.

For a body funded from abroad the form matters more, because banks and regulators look closely at money coming in from outside. A body with proper registration, accounts and named office-holders can open an account and receive funds; an informal committee cannot. An advocate chooses the form with you before any paper is drafted.

What has to be in place

What has to be clear.

  1. What the body will do, where, and roughly on what scale.

  2. Who will be the office-holders in Pakistan, and who abroad.

  3. Where the money will come from, and how it will be received.

Note Your advocate confirms which of these apply to your case.

The documents you will be asked for

The papers the registrar or the regulator asks for.

  • The founding document: the trust deed, the society’s rules, or the company’s memorandum and articles.
  • Identity documents of the founders and office-holders.
  • A registered address in Pakistan.
  • For a not-for-profit company: the licence application and the undertakings it requires.

How an advocate helps from where you are

What an advocate does.

  • Chooses the form with you, and tells you what each will cost to run each year.
  • Drafts the founding document so that the regulator accepts it and the body can open an account.
  • Files the registration or the licence application, and answers the queries that follow.
  • Sets up the reporting so that the body stays registered.

What to ask before you agree

  • Which form fits what we want to do, and what does each cost to run?
  • Who has to be in Pakistan, and who can be abroad?
  • What reporting keeps the body registered, and who will do it?
  • What do you need from me, and by when?
  • What is your fee, and what is not included in it?

More in Setting up and closing a company

Next in this group I want to register a company in Pakistan Registering a company or a sole trade while the owner lives abroad, and what has to be signed in person. Read this next

Also relevant

All of Setting up and closing a company on one page

Words you will meet

not-for-profit company
A company licensed by the regulator to work for a charitable object.
trust
A body created by a deed to hold property for a purpose.
society
An association registered with the provincial registrar.

Sources

Official pages read on 11 September 2026. The page says only what these say, and what an advocate does; nothing specific to your case.

Checked

11 September 2026

Pakistan. Sources listed at the end of the page.

Find an advocate who handles this

The register shows who acts on a power of attorney, who has filed from abroad, and in which city.