SECP company search: how to verify a transport supplier in Pakistan

A SECP company search tells you one thing well: whether a business calling itself “Something Transport (Private) Limited” is a company on Pakistan’s register at all. It does not tell you whether that company owns a single car in Multan. To verify a transport company in Pakistan properly, run three cheap checks in order. First, search the name on the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan name search. Second, confirm the tax status with the Federal Board of Revenue, either through the Active Taxpayer List or by SMS to 9966. Third, ask for documents you can test against other registers: vehicle registration, insurance and a named person in each city the supplier claims to cover. Registration proves existence. Only evidence proves serviceability.

Decision summary: what each check proves

Due diligence usually fails one of two ways: the buyer checks nothing, or runs one register search, gets a match and treats it as a clean bill of health. Read the right-hand column carefully.

Treat the first four rows as filters. They screen out the fake and the careless. The last row, plus a small paid trial, is where you actually learn whether the supplier can do the job.

How to run a SECP company search, step by step

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan has been the country’s corporate regulator since it became operational on 1 January 1999, and it keeps the register of companies through company registration offices in Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Multan, Peshawar, Sukkur, Faisalabad, Quetta and Gilgit-Baltistan. Companies are formed under the Companies Act, 2017, which allows public companies, private companies and single member companies. For a buyer, the public entry point is the eServices name search. It was built for people reserving new names, but it works as a first existence check.

1. Get the exact legal name in writing. Ask the supplier for its registered name as it appears on its certificate of incorporation, not its trading brand. To take a made-up example, “Royal Rides” on a Facebook page may be “RR Mobility Services (SMC-Private) Limited” on paper, or nothing at all.
2. Open the SECP name search. The page offers a single box, “Enter the name to search”, and three modes: Exact Name, Beginning With, and Including Exact String.
3. Start with Exact Name. Type the full legal name, including “(Private) Limited” or “(SMC-Private) Limited” if the supplier gave it to you that way.
4. If nothing comes back, widen the net. Switch to Beginning With using the first distinctive word, then Including Exact String. Suppliers often abbreviate or misspell their own name on quotes.
5. Look for near-duplicates. In a hypothetical case where the register shows “Al Noor Travels (Private) Limited” and your supplier is “Al-Noor Travel & Tours”, those may be different businesses. A similar name is not a match.
6. Record what you found. Screenshot the result with the date. That note is your audit trail.

Reading the result honestly

SECP’s own disclaimer on the page describes the output as a system-generated confirmation that creates no right of name reservation, and says the final call on name availability sits with the Registrar of Companies. In plain terms, this is a lookup, not a certificate. A hit means a matching name exists on the register. It does not confirm the company is in good standing, that its directors are the people you are talking to, or that it has filed its annual returns. SECP publishes an annual corporate compliance reminder precisely because filing is an ongoing obligation, not a one-time event.

So use the name search to eliminate, not to endorse. No match for a supplier that insists it is a private limited company is a serious red flag. A match simply moves the supplier to the next check.

Asking for the paperwork behind the name

Once you have a match, ask for a copy of the certificate of incorporation and the company’s registration number. Companies are incorporated through SECP’s eZfile system or the prescribed physical forms, so a genuine company will hold its incorporation paperwork and should be able to produce it without drama. If the person you are dealing with cannot, or sends a certificate whose name differs from the register entry, stop and ask why before going further.

FBR active taxpayer list check and NTN verification online

The Federal Board of Revenue check is more useful than people expect, because it catches a class of supplier that SECP never sees. Every serious transport business, company or not, should have a National Tax Number, and the NTN is something you can test.

How to run the FBR active taxpayer list check

FBR’s Check Active Taxpayer Status page sets out the options:

• SMS, for a business: send “ATL”, a space, and the 7-digit NTN to 9966.
• SMS, for an individual: send “ATL”, a space, and the 13-digit CNIC to 9966. This is the one to use for a sole proprietor or an owner-driver.
• SMS, for Azad Jammu and Kashmir: send “AJKATL”, a space, and the CNIC or 11-digit NTN without dashes to 9966. FBR notes that the AJK active taxpayer list is treated on a par with the main income tax list following the Finance Act 2018 amendment to the Income Tax Ordinance 2001.
• Online: use the ATL status check portal linked from the same page.
• The full list: download the income tax Active Taxpayer List. FBR dates each edition and refreshes it often, so check the “updated on” date before relying on a copy; it also advises clearing your browser cache before downloading so you do not open a stale copy.

There is a separate Sales Tax Active Taxpayer List with its own search utility. Many transport suppliers will not appear on it, and absence is not in itself suspicious.

What an ATL result means for procurement

An active listing tells you the NTN or CNIC is on FBR’s current list. That is a real signal. What it does not tell you is whether the NTN belongs to the entity that will invoice you. The classic mismatch runs like this, as a hypothetical example: the quote comes from a trading name, the NTN supplied belongs to the owner’s cousin, and the invoice arrives from a third name altogether. Insist that the name on the quote, the NTN you checked and the name on the invoice line up.

For a company, the question to ask is simple: “What is your NTN, and is it registered to the same legal name as your SECP entry?” SECP and FBR have publicised a joint initiative to integrate company and NTN registration, so a recently formed company that cannot produce an NTN deserves a follow-up question.

Provincial services tax registration

Sales tax on services is collected provincially, by bodies such as the Punjab Revenue Authority, the Sindh Revenue Board and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority, which was set up under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Act, 2013 to administer sales tax on services. The Punjab Revenue Authority issues sales tax registration numbers on request without a fee and runs STRIVE, a real-time sales tax invoice verification system launched in October 2017. A supplier that charges provincial sales tax but cannot quote a registration number has a bigger problem than service quality.

Sole traders and partnerships: why a blank SECP result is not always a red flag

Plenty of the transport suppliers you will meet are not incorporated at all. Picture, as examples, the owner-driver with two Corollas in Rawalpindi, the family firm that runs a coaster and three Hiace vans out of Sialkot, the Hunza operator with four-wheel-drive vehicles for the Karakoram Highway season: many of these trade as sole proprietors or ordinary partnerships. None of them is a company, so none of them will show up when you check company registration in Pakistan through SECP. The Companies Act, 2017 governs companies, and a plain partnership or a one-person business sits outside the company register.

That changes the test, not the standard. For an unincorporated supplier:

1. Check the individual. Run the owner’s CNIC through the FBR active taxpayer list by SMS. A proprietor who is an active taxpayer has at least a filing history.
2. Match the name. Ask for the NTN certificate or registration in the proprietor’s or firm’s name, and make sure it matches the name that will appear on the invoice and the payment account.
3. Ask for the partnership deed if there is one. For a partnership, the deed tells you who the partners are and who can bind the firm.
4. Lean harder on vehicle and insurance evidence. With no corporate register behind them, the documents for the vehicles themselves carry more weight.

The mirror-image warning also applies. A supplier that calls itself “(Pvt) Ltd” on its letterhead should appear on the SECP register. If it does not, the problem is not its legal form; it is that it has misdescribed itself.

Testing claimed city coverage with named local operators

This is where most serviceability claims fall apart, and where registers are no help at all. A supplier registered in Lahore can list Karachi, Quetta, Gilgit, Skardu and Gwadar on its website at no cost. The question is whether it has vehicles and people there or plans to ring around after you pay.

Subcontracting is normal; undisclosed subcontracting is the problem. Here is a test that takes about an hour.

1. Pick the two cities that matter most to you. Not the whole list: the airport pickup that must not fail and the outstation leg where a breakdown would hurt most.
2. Ask for a named local contact in each. A name, a direct mobile number and the vehicles based there. “Our team covers Peshawar” is not an answer.
3. Call that person yourself. Ask ground-truth questions only someone local answers without hesitation: where drivers wait at arrivals, the evening run time to the city centre, the road for your outstation leg, and the plan if a flight lands three hours late.
4. Ask for a registration number for one vehicle in that city. Then verify it, as described in the next section.
5. Ask directly who employs the driver. The supplier’s own staff, an owner-driver on contract, or a partner firm. Any of those can work. A vague answer means the supplier does not yet know who will turn up.

If the answers are crisp in the supplier’s home city and vague everywhere else, you have learned its real footprint. Book it where it is strong and find someone else, or a platform with its own supply in that city, for the rest.

Documents to request: registration, tax, vehicle and insurance

Ask for everything at once, in one message, before prices are final. A professional supplier sends a folder; an improvising one sends excuses in instalments. Scale the request to the job.

Verifying a vehicle

Vehicle registration is run by provincial excise departments. In Punjab, the Excise, Taxation and Narcotics Control Department lists its MTMIS system for online verification of registered vehicles, alongside e-registration cards and token tax payment. Other provinces run their own systems. What you are looking for is basic consistency: the number exists, and the make and model match what you were offered. A “2023 Land Cruiser” whose registration returns a different model is not a paperwork error.

Insurance: read the dates

The easy thing to miss is not a forged certificate but an expired one. Check the policy period covers your travel dates and that the registration number on the certificate is the vehicle actually coming. For multi-vehicle jobs, ask in writing what cover applies to passengers.

What registration cannot tell you about service quality

A perfect set of register results describes a legal and tax position. It says nothing about the things you are really buying. The gaps are predictable:

• Punctuality. No register records whether a driver was at the arrivals hall when the flight landed.
• Vehicle condition. A registered vehicle can have worn tyres, a weak air conditioner in June or a boot too small for four suitcases. Ask for recent photos of the actual vehicle.
• Driver judgement. Motorway discipline, night driving, knowing when to stop on a mountain road: none of it is on file.
• Contingency. What happens when a vehicle breaks down 80 kilometres from the nearest town is a function of the supplier’s network, not its paperwork.

The only reliable ways to test these are references from buyers with a comparable job, a small paid trial before a large commitment, and clear written terms that say what happens when something goes wrong. If you manage recurring travel for staff or visitors, our overview of business travel car service in Pakistan sets out what a managed arrangement should include.

Red flags worth walking away from

• Claims to be a private limited company, but no SECP match under any spelling.
• An NTN that does not appear as active, or belongs to a different name from the invoice.
• Payment requested to a personal account in a third party’s name.
• Coverage in every city, a named contact in none.
• Reluctance to put cancellation and refund terms in writing.

The same logic applies to transport booked abroad. For families arranging onward travel for Umrah, our sister company Hajj Umrah Taxi has a guide to recognising a licensed versus unlicensed Saudi transport provider before you pay a deposit.

If you are the supplier: make the checks easy

Read from the other side, this checklist is a sales document: operators with a ready folder of registration, NTN, vehicle papers, insurance and a named contact per city win buyers who have been let down before. If you run vehicles and want to work with a managed platform, the iDrive partner programme explains how suppliers join, and fleet owners can apply through list your car with iDrive. Expect to be asked for the documents above; that is the point.

Where iDrive fits

iDrive is a managed-mobility platform that works with independent operators, drivers and fleets, which is why supplier questions like these matter to us too. That does not remove your judgement from the process: vehicle availability varies by city and date, and a quote is confirmed only when a suitable vehicle and driver are allocated. Our terms of hire set out what is and is not covered, which is the kind of written wording you should expect from any supplier. Family travellers who want a warmer, planning-first route can use our sister service Pakistan Taxi, which runs on the iDrive network. When you are ready to share dates, passengers and luggage, send your journey details through iDrive booking and we will come back with what we can offer.

Questions people ask

Is the SECP name search the same as an official company verification?

No. SECP describes the output as a system-generated confirmation that creates no right of name reservation. It shows whether matching names exist on the register. Ask the supplier for its certificate of incorporation and compare it with the search result.

How do I do an NTN verification online without logging in?

The quickest route is SMS: “ATL”, a space, and the 7-digit NTN to 9966 for a business, or the 13-digit CNIC for an individual. FBR also offers an online ATL status check and a downloadable list on its website.

My supplier is not on SECP. Should I reject it?

Not automatically. Sole proprietors and ordinary partnerships are not companies and will not appear. Check the owner’s or firm’s tax status with FBR instead, and put more weight on vehicle and insurance documents. Reject it if it claims to be a limited company and is not on the register.