Succession certificate, letter of administration: Documents to be available within 15 days

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Thursday launched the online system for issuance of letters of administration and succession certificates within 15 days, saying the step will greatly facilitate local citizens and overseas Pakistanis.

Addressing the launch ceremony here, he said the main objective of digitalization of inheritance system was to facilitate the general public and to provide them with justice without delay.

The letters of administration and succession certificates, which earlier took around two to seven years to issue, will now take two weeks. Imran said the government considered legal reforms crucial in ensuring justice through people-friendly legislation. He regretted that delay in matters relating to inheritance of property caused utmost grievances to the heirs, particularly the families dispersed abroad.

Imran Khan said the overall system that denied the spirit of facilitation for general public in fact encouraged criminal activities in shape of bribery or illegal occupation of property. “When crime pays, crime multiplies. Besides reforms in the Civil Procedure Courts, he said, the government would bring improvement in the Criminal Justice System as well. For the purpose, all the stakeholders, including the judiciary and lawyers, will be taken on board,” he added.

Dr Farogh Nasim said the Law Ministry had devised a mechanism to establish Succession Facilitation Units in collaboration with the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) for the issuance of letters of administration and succession certificates.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan Thursday lauded the key role of religious scholars in tackling the problems facing the country, be it extremism or sectarianism and said their cooperation was needed to counter the nefarious conspiracies to create differences and divisions in the Muslim Ummah. He observed this while talking to a delegation of Ulema and Mashaikh, which called on him here. Minister for Religious Affairs Peer Noor-ul-Haq Qadri was also present in the meeting.