When someone dies, the estate does not freeze. Bank accounts lock, the registrar will not transfer the plot, the employer will not release the provident fund, and every one of them asks for a piece of paper that the family has usually never heard of. There are two such papers, they do different jobs, and since 2021 there are two places to get them.
The short answer
- A Succession Certificate deals with movable assets and debts owed to the deceased: bank balances, saving certificates, shares, provident fund, gratuity, insurance proceeds, money someone owed him.
- Letters of Administration authorise a person to administer the estate more broadly, and are what is generally required to deal with immovable property — a house, a plot, agricultural land — where a transfer has to be recorded.
If the question is “the bank will not release my father's account”, you are looking for a succession certificate. If it is “the plot is still in my father's name and we want it mutated to the heirs”, you are looking at letters of administration.
The 2021 change nobody uses enough
The Letters of Administration and Succession Certificates Act, 2021 allowed NADRA to issue both documents, out of court, where the succession is not disputed. This is the single most useful development in Pakistani succession practice in a generation, and most families still go straight to a civil court out of habit.
How the NADRA route works in practice:
- An heir applies at a designated NADRA centre with the death certificate, the CNICs of the deceased and of every legal heir, and the details of the assets.
- NADRA verifies the family tree against its own records — which is precisely why it is fast, and precisely why the family tree must already be correct in NADRA's database. Fix that first.
- Biometrics are taken from the heirs, and a notice period runs during which objections can be filed.
- If no objection is received, the certificate or the letters are issued, typically within a matter of weeks rather than years.
The moment there is a genuine dispute — a contested heir, a second marriage, a will, an heir who will not appear — NADRA cannot proceed and the matter goes to court. That is a feature, not a failure: NADRA is an uncontested-cases channel.
The court route
The court route runs under the Succession Act, 1925. A succession certificate is granted by the civil court on a petition setting out the death, the heirs and the debts and securities claimed. The court issues public notice, hears objections, and grants the certificate — usually against security. Letters of administration follow a similar path with a wider scope.
Court proceedings are what you want when:
- Any heir denies another heir's status, or an heir is a minor with competing interests.
- There is a will, or an allegation of one.
- An heir is untraceable, or refuses to participate.
- The estate is large enough, or the family tense enough, that you want a judicial finding rather than an administrative one.
What both routes will demand
- Death certificate from the union council or NADRA — not a hospital slip.
- CNICs of the deceased and every legal heir, and the family registration certificate (FRC) showing the relationships.
- A complete list of assets with the specifics: account numbers and branch, certificate numbers, the CDC account for shares, the khasra or plot number for land.
- Details of the shares each heir takes. Distribution follows the personal law that applies to the deceased; for Muslims that is the Islamic law of inheritance, and the shares are fixed, not negotiable.
Practical points that save months
- Get the NADRA family tree right before anything else. A missing child, a wrong date of death, an unlinked spouse — each one stalls both routes.
- List every asset in one application. A certificate limited to one bank account does not help with the second account discovered later; you will apply again.
- Do not let one heir quietly take a transfer. An heir who obtains a mutation without the others is not the owner of the property; the other heirs' shares survive, and the litigation that follows is far more expensive than doing it properly the first time.
- Watch for a locked pension or provident fund. Employers often have their own nomination rules. A nomination decides who receives the money, not who owns it — the heirs' shares still apply.
- Overseas heirs can act through a special power of attorney, attested by the Pakistani mission in their country. Have it drafted for the specific proceeding rather than as a general power.
This article describes general succession procedure in Pakistan and is not advice on any particular estate. Whether NADRA or a court is the right forum, and how an estate is divided, depend on the assets, the personal law applicable to the deceased, and whether anyone objects. Consult an advocate before applying.