Every PSX brokerage account is opened on the same document — a Customer Relationship Form (CRF) — but what has to go with it depends entirely on who’s opening it. An individual, a joint pair, a minor, a non-resident and a company each attach a different set of enclosures to the same form, and one of those checklists changed recently: PSX, NCCPL and CDC issued a joint guideline on minor trading accounts on 6 November 2025, replacing what used to be an ad-hoc, broker-by-broker process. This piece breaks the checklist out by holder type, sourced to PSX’s own CRF templates and that notice directly, rather than the generic “bring your CNIC” line most guides stop at.
One form, several annexures
The Customer Relationship Form is the account-opening document behind both a CDC Sub Account and an Investor Account — it’s the merged KYC form that replaced the separate trading-account and CDC forms when NCCPL took on the Centralized KYC Organization (CKO) role. PSX publishes two CRF templates: one for individuals (which covers joint applicants and nominees within the same form) and one for a company or other body corporate. What changes below is which enclosures attach to which template — not the underlying process.
The checklist, by holder type
| Requirement | Individual | Minor | Non-resident / foreign national | Company |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Identity document | CNIC or SNIC | NADRA Juvenile Card, Form-B or Child Registration Certificate, plus the guardian's own CNIC | Passport, plus NICOP, POC or ARC | Certificate of Incorporation, plus CNIC/NICOP/passport of each authorised signatory |
| Who operates the account | The account holder | A guardian only — natural guardian by default, or a court-appointed one | The applicant, or an attorney under a notarized or consulate-attested Power of Attorney | Signatories named in the Board Resolution |
| Extra enclosure | Zakat declaration, or an affidavit if non-Muslim | Guardianship certificate, if the guardian isn't the father | Identity documents attested by a notary public or a Pakistani Consul General | Board Resolution/Power of Attorney, MOA/AOA or equivalent constitutive documents, NTN certificate, list of directors |
| Notable restriction | Cash funding capped at Rs 25,000 | No futures, MTS, MFS, SLB, NDM or same-day square-up | — | No director/CEO convicted of a moral-turpitude offence in the past 5 years |
A few lines in that table are worth pulling out, because they’re the parts a generic checklist usually flattens.
Joint accounts share the Individual template, with one restriction. The CRF’s nomination section — naming who inherits the account without probate — only applies to a sole individual account. Under the nomination rule in Companies Act 2017 §79, as cited on PSX’s own form, a nominee must be a spouse, father, mother, brother, sister, son or daughter, and a joint account can’t carry one at all. The form’s general terms also make joint holders liable “jointly and severally” for the account — each holder is on the hook for the whole account, not just their notional share.
Minor accounts are new, and specific. Before November 2025, opening an account for a minor was handled inconsistently across brokers. PSX/N-1194 standardises it: the account is titled in the minor’s name with the guardian noted, the UIN is registered under the guardian, and the guardian — not the minor — holds sole operating authority until the child turns 18. The guideline also closes off the higher-risk order types entirely for a minor’s account: no futures contracts, no Margin Trading System or Margin Financing, no Securities Lending and Borrowing, no Negotiated Deals Market, and no same-day buy-and-sell squaring off. At the age of majority, the guideline sets out a defined transition: the minor’s holdings move into a new account opened in their own name (via a fresh CRF or a Sahulat Account under a new UIN), and that transfer itself carries no capital gains tax — CGT applies only from the new account’s own holding period forward, tracked on a first-in-first-out basis.
The cash cap is a broker reporting trigger, not just a suggestion. PSX’s Individual CRF sets Rs 25,000 as the ceiling for cash funding; above that, the deposit has to move by crossed cheque, bank draft, pay order or electronic transfer. A broker who accepts cash above that threshold in an exceptional case is required to report it to PSX within one trading day.
The simplified route: Sahulat Account
Outside the CRF entirely, PSX offers a lighter-weight option aimed at first-time, low-complexity investors: the Sahulat Account. Opening one needs only a simplified account-opening form and a copy of the CNIC — no additional income documentation, for a customer assessed as low-risk. The trade-off is real restriction, not just less paperwork: a Sahulat Account can only be held by a single individual, with no joint holder permitted at all; it’s capped at PKR 3 million per account (an investor can open one per broker, at multiple brokers, but not two at the same broker); and trading is restricted to the Ready Market — the Margin Trading System, Margin Financing, Securities Lending and Borrowing, and the Negotiated Deals Market are all off-limits, the same restriction the minor’s account guideline applies separately. A Sahulat Account holder can convert to a full CRF-based trading account at any time.
What this doesn’t cover
Two things came up in researching this piece that don’t have a primary source solid enough to state here. CDC’s own fee schedule for Investor Account admission and its more detailed guidance on biometric exceptions sit behind Cloudflare’s bot protection and couldn’t be read directly this round — the Sub Account vs Investor Account piece covers what is verifiable about that comparison. And this piece deliberately doesn’t restate the account-opening sequence itself, or the ongoing costs of trading once the account exists — how to start investing on the PSX already covers both in full.
None of the checklist above is company-specific — the same documents open an account whether the first position on the watchlist ends up being a bank or an exploration name on the board. Once the account and CDC side are settled, sizing that first position is a separate calculation — the desk’s position size calculator runs that against a stop distance rather than a round number.
Checking any of this yourself
- PSX Notice PSX/N-1194 — Guidelines for Opening Trading Accounts of Minors, 6 Nov 2025
- PSX — Customer Relationship Form, Individuals and Company/Other Body Corporate
- PSX — Account Opening Checklist
- PSX — Sahulat Account overview
Research, not advice. This explains what documents different account holders need under PSX’s own forms and notices; it is not a recommendation to open an account or trade through any particular route. Rules are dated as of the sources above — check PSX’s own pages before acting on anything time-sensitive, especially the minor-account guideline, which is new enough that broker-level implementation may still vary.