Guide
An inheritance,
and the paper that divides it
When someone dies in Pakistan, the heirs need a paper that names them and sets out what share each one gets. There are two such papers, and which one you need depends on what was left. NADRA issues them, and a court comes into it only if NADRA turns the case down.
Where this applies This page covers property and assets in Islamabad Capital Territory, and a route set up there by a law from 2020. Whether the same route covers the place your family’s property is in is a separate question, and one for your advocate.
The two papers
Which one you need depends on what the person who died left behind.
For money and shares
Succession certificate
It covers what the person owned that can be moved, which the law calls movable property. A bank account and shares are the usual ones.
For land and buildings
Letter of administration
It covers what cannot be moved, which the law calls immovable property. That is land, and whatever is built on it.
Both go to all the heirs together, and the paper sets out the share each heir gets under the personal law that applies to them.
Once issued, they count the same as a paper issued by a court.
When this route is open, and when it closes
It is open when the heirs agree. NADRA works from the family record it already holds.
It closes as soon as there is a real dispute. If an heir objects, if there is a claim about who the heirs are that NADRA cannot settle, or if the case needs evidence to be heard, NADRA declines it.
It also closes if one of the heirs is a child. That is written into the law itself, and it does not wait for anyone to object.
Where NADRA declines, the case goes to the ordinary forum instead. And no court takes the case before NADRA has declined it.
The order it happens in
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One heir applies
The heirs can authorise one of themselves to apply for all of them. The application goes to the office covering where the person ordinarily lived when they died, or where the property is.
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The papers go in
The death certificate, a list of the heirs with copies of their identity cards, the authorisation, and details of what was left.
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Notice is published
On a public portal, and in one English and one Urdu daily newspaper.
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Fourteen days to object
If nobody objects in that time, biometrics are taken from the applicant and from every heir.
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The document is issued
It goes to all the heirs together, with each share set out.
Note Someone can still object after the document has issued. That goes down a different road, and it is one to ask your advocate about.
Heirs who live abroad
Biometrics can be taken at a notified office in Pakistan, or at one abroad. Not every Pakistani mission is one.
The missions named for this are in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bradford, Jeddah, Riyadh, Medina, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha. Check whether one of them is near you before you plan around it.
Every heir has to be verified, not only the one who applies.
An heir who cannot be verified that way can be told to appear in person.
What to ask before you agree
- Which office covers this, the one where they lived or the one where the land is?
- Is anything in our family a dispute in the eyes of this law, so that the route is closed?
- One of the heirs is a child. What does that change?
- Where can each heir give biometrics without travelling to Pakistan?
- What is your fee, and what is not included in it?
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Also relevant
Words you will meet
- succession certificate
- The paper for movable property, such as accounts and shares.
- letter of administration
- The paper for immovable property, such as land.
- heirs
- The people who inherit.
- NADRA
- The office that issues both papers where the heirs agree.