Registering a Consulting Engineering Firm with PEC: The 51% Rule

01A separate track

Design, supervision and consultancy practices are licensed as Pakistani consulting engineer firms. They do not carry a constructor project limit, and filing them on the constructor track is a common and costly mistake.

02The ownership test

At least 51% of a consulting partnership or private company must be owned by professional engineers, with limited exceptions. This is checked before anything else, so settle the ownership split — and the partnership deed or company documents that show it — first.

03Before you file

1. 01Confirm the consulting track is the right one for your work
2. 02Check the ownership split against the 51% rule
3. 03Put the structure in place: partnership deed or SECP incorporation
4. 04Register the NTN and bank account in the same name
5. 05File the PEC application with the engineers’ cards

04How long it takes

Consulting ownership tests add time compared with a simple constructor file. Nobody outside PEC controls committee dates.