Pakistan statutory reference
Provincial social security
PESSI, SESSI and their counterparts. The rate is in the statute; the wage ceiling is not, which is why every guide quotes a different number.
Each province runs its own social security institution, funding medical care and sickness, maternity and injury benefits for secured workers. Sindh re-enacted its scheme as the Sindh Employees' Social Security Act 2016; the others still run on the Provincial Employees' Social Security Ordinance 1965 as each has amended it.
If you have tried to pin down the rate and the ceiling and got four different answers, there is a reason, and it is structural rather than anybody's carelessness.
Deducting social security from an employee’s pay is unlawful in Sindh.
Section 20(2) of the Sindh Employees’ Social Security Act 2016: the employer "shall not be entitled to deduct his own share of contribution from the employee’s wages or otherwise to recover from him any portion of the contribution, notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary." A contract the employee signed does not make it lawful. The equivalent provision runs through the 1965 Ordinance in the other provinces.
Read from the Sindh Employees’ Social Security Act 2016, section 20(2)
Rate by province
Sindh SESSI
6% · Employer only
Read from Sindh Employees’ Social Security Act 2016, section 20
Sindh Employees’ Social Security Act 2016
Section 20(1) fixes the rate at six per cent. Section 20(2) forbids the employer from recovering any part of it from the employee — see the warning on this page.
Punjab PESSI
6% · Employer only
Open question — do not file on this
The statute: Provincial Employees’ Social Security Ordinance 1965, section 20, as amended 2013
The amended Ordinance sets a ceiling of "not more than six per cent" rather than a fixed rate, so the operative figure comes from a notification. Six per cent is what is applied in practice and what every account we read reports, but we could not obtain the Punjab notification itself. Confirm with PESSI before you file.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa KPESSI
6% · Employer only
Open question — do not file on this
The statute: Provincial Employees’ Social Security Ordinance 1965, as adopted
Same structure as Punjab. Not independently confirmed.
Balochistan BESSI
6% · Employer only
Open question — do not file on this
The statute: Provincial Employees’ Social Security Ordinance 1965, as adopted
Same structure as Punjab. Not independently confirmed.
The wage ceiling
We are not going to print a number here.
Contributions stop at a wage ceiling set by provincial notification, not by the statute — in Sindh under section 75 of the 2016 Act. Published figures range from PKR 22,000 to PKR 40,000 depending on which year the guide was written in. We will not print one. Ask your provincial institution for the notification in force this month.
Open question — do not file on this
The statute: set by provincial notification, not by the statute
Why every guide gives you a different figure
The rate and the ceiling are set by two different mechanisms, and only one of them is in the statute.
- The rate is statutory. Sindh's 2016 Act fixes it at six per cent in section 20(1). The 1965 Ordinance, as amended in 2013, instead sets a ceiling of "not more than six per cent" — so in those provinces even the rate is formally a matter for rules rather than a fixed figure.
- The ceiling is not. It comes from a notification — in Sindh, under section 75 of the 2016 Act — and it moves with the minimum wage. A guide written two years ago is quoting a ceiling that has since been superseded, which is exactly how you end up reading PKR 22,000 on one page and PKR 40,000 on another. Neither was wrong when it was published.
The practical consequence: treat the rate as settled and the ceiling as something you confirm every time the minimum wage moves.
How this differs from EOBI
They are separate schemes and you will usually owe both. EOBI is federal, is a pension, costs six per cent split five–one between you and the employee, and has a ten-employee threshold written into the Act. Provincial social security is medical and short-term benefits, costs six per cent from you alone, and sets its own threshold province by province.
Found something out of date?
These figures change by notification, often without announcement. If you hold a notification we have not seen — especially a provincial one — send it and we will correct the page and credit the source.