KARACHI: Pakistan’s corporate regulator has marked more than 39,000 companies as “inactive” for failing to submit their annual financial statements, it said on Saturday, amid efforts to improve compliance and transparency in the country’s corporate sector.

In Pakistan, companies registered with the SECP must file their annual returns (Form A or Form 24) within 30 days of holding their annual general meeting (AGM). For companies with a standard June 30 financial year end, the AGM must typically be held by October 28 or October 31, depending on specific calendar scheduling, which makes the annual returns deadline Nov. 27 (30 days post-AGM). If no AGM is held or concluded, then annual returns must be filed by January 30 of the following calendar year, according to the SECP.

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) said on Saturday it had rendered 39,704 companies inactive, without clarifying whether these companies had not been filing returns for a long time or it was because of their failure to hold AGM by end-October.

The regulator said that marking non-filing companies as inactive will make the corporate register more reliable and help prevent dormant companies from being misused as their inactive status would be visible to banks and other stakeholders.

“These companies will not be able to open new bank accounts until they file their overdue documents with the SECP and regain active status,” the SECP said. “They will also be unable to access financial services or register changes in their directors.”

Of these more than 39,000 inactive firms, 13,927 were 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, according to the regulator.

Filing annual returns and 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. Prolonged non-filing weakens the corporate register and can hinder efforts to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.

“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,” the regulator quoted its chairman Dr. Kabir Ahmed Sidhu as saying.

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,” the regulator said.