Probation period in Pakistan: rules, confirmation and termination

StreamHCM

Written by the StreamHCM team for HR and payroll managers in Pakistan. Updated on 9 November 2026.

Probation is the period in which both sides can see whether the job and the person fit, before the notice rules for a permanent workman apply. HR gets into trouble when the appointment letter, the attendance record and the confirmation letter each tell a different story about the end date.

As of November 2026. This page is general information based on the attached text of the West Pakistan Industrial and Commercial Employment (Standing Orders) Ordinance, 1968, including the Punjab amendment notes in that copy. It is not legal advice. Sindh has the Terms of Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 2015, and Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan apply their own current statutes. Provincial laws, your certified standing orders and the employment contract can differ. Check the text that covers your establishment, or speak to a labour law adviser, before you confirm or end a probation.

Who this Standing Orders text covers

The copy checked for this page says, in section 1, that it extends to the Punjab, and that it applies to every industrial or commercial establishment where twenty or more workmen are employed, or were employed on any day during the preceding twelve months, and to other classes the Government notifies. A further proviso says the Ordinance does not apply to industrial and commercial establishments carried on by or under the authority of the Federal or Provincial Government where statutory rules of service, conduct or discipline apply to the workmen.

A separate proviso says Standing Orders 10-B and 11, clauses (6) and (8) of Standing Order 12, and Standing Order 15 do not apply, in the first instance, to an industrial establishment where not more than forty-nine persons were employed on any day during the preceding twelve months. Clauses (2), (3) and (4) of Standing Order 12, which this page uses for notice, written reasons and dues, are outside that list.

Many white-collar and managerial staff are outside the workman definition and are governed mainly by the contract. A probation of three to six months is common in offer letters for those roles. That length is contractual. It is not the three-month period in Standing Order 1. Write it down. The appointment letter guide sets out the worker category, the probation clause and the notice clause that should already be on file.

What Standing Order 1 says

Standing Order 1 classifies workmen. The categories named in the attached text are permanent, probationers, badlis, temporary, apprentices and contract workers.

• Standing Order 1(c), probationer. A workman provisionally employed to fill a permanent vacancy in a post who has not completed three months' service in that post. If a permanent employee is employed as a probationer in a higher post, he may, at any time during the probationary period of three months, be reverted to his old permanent post.
• Standing Order 1(b), permanent workman. A workman engaged on work of a permanent nature likely to last more than nine months who has satisfactorily completed a probationary period of three months in the same or another occupation in the establishment. The three months include breaks due to sickness, accident, leave, lock-out, strike (not an illegal lock-out or strike) or involuntary closure of the establishment. The same clause also includes a badli who has been employed for a continuous period of three months, or for one hundred and eighty-three days during any period of twelve consecutive months. The attached text spells that word "continues".

Reversion and termination are different. Reversion sends a permanent employee back to the old permanent post during the three months in the higher post. It does not, on this wording, end the employment. Ending the employment of a new probationer is Standing Order 12.

Probation and permanent status

Read the two definitions together. The work has to be of a permanent nature and likely to last more than nine months, and the person has to have satisfactorily completed three months' probation. A person on a genuinely temporary job, finished within nine months, is in the temporary category in Standing Order 1(e), which is a different classification.

Sick leave, accident, ordinary leave, a lock-out, a strike that is not illegal, and involuntary closure count inside the three months. They do not, on this wording, restart the probation. Keep the joining date and those absences on the same record so the end date is not argued from memory.

Once the person is a permanent workman, Standing Order 12(1) requires one month's notice, or one month's wages in lieu, to end the employment for a reason other than misconduct. How that month is calculated is in the notice period guide.

Extending probation

The attached Ordinance text defines a probationer as a person who has not completed three months' service in the post. It does not describe a right to stretch that period. Treat any extension as a contractual step, and only where the person's category allows the contract to set the period.

• Decide before the current end date. A letter written after the date has already passed is a weak record.
• Put it in writing: the employee's name, the original end date, the new end date, and the reason you are extending.
• Do not backdate it.
• For a workman covered by Standing Order 1, ask an adviser before you rely on a six-month clause. The definition on this page is three months.
• For a manager or other staff member outside that definition, follow the appointment letter. If that letter allows an extension, the written extension should say the new date and what "satisfactory" means.

Confirmation letter checklist

A confirmation letter is the employer's written statement that probation has been completed satisfactorily and that the person continues in the post. Use it as a checklist:

1. Employer's name, the date, and the employee's name, designation, department and employee ID.
2. Joining date and the date probation ended.
3. A plain statement that the probationary period was completed satisfactorily.
4. Designation and monthly salary from the confirmation date. If nothing changed, say so.
5. The category from that date. Where Standing Order 1(b) applies, say that the person is a permanent workman. Where the contract governs, say that the person is confirmed under the contract.
6. The notice period that now applies, consistent with the notice period rules and the appointment letter.
7. Signature of a person authorised to confirm employment, and a line for the employee to acknowledge receipt.
8. A copy filed with the appointment letter. Conduct letters, if any, stay on the same file. See warning letters in Pakistan.

Ending probation fairly

Standing Order 12 was substituted for the original by the Labour Laws (Amendment) Act, V of 1972. Clause (3) of Standing Order 12 was substituted by the Industrial and Commercial Employment (Standing Orders) (Amendment) Act, XXIII of 1973. In the text checked here, the clauses work like this:

• Standing Order 12(2). No temporary workman, whether monthly-rated, weekly-rated, daily-rated or piece-rated, and no probationer or badli, is entitled to any notice if the employer terminates the employment. The same workman is not required to give any notice, or to pay wages in lieu, if he leaves of his own accord.
• Standing Order 12(3). The services of a workman shall not be terminated, nor shall a workman be removed, retrenched, discharged or dismissed, except by an order in writing which explicitly states the reason. A probationer is a workman under Standing Order 1, so this written order still applies when the employer ends the probation. Give the reason in specific words, not a blank "unsatisfactory".
• Standing Order 12(4). Where services are terminated, the wages earned and other dues, including payment for unavailed leave as defined in Standing Order 8(1), shall be paid before the expiry of the second working day from the day of termination. That covers salary for the days worked. The final settlement guide shows how the last salary, leave and other lines are added up.

If the appointment letter promised a notice period during probation, follow the letter as well as the Ordinance. A promise that is more generous than Standing Order 12(2) is still a promise. Misconduct is a different path: the written charge and the chance to explain are covered in the warning letter guide, and notice under Standing Order 12(1) is about termination for a reason other than misconduct.

Leave taken during the three months still counts toward the period, as Standing Order 1(b) says. Annual leave, sick leave and the other statutory leaves are a separate subject. See labour law leave entitlements in Pakistan.

How StreamHCM keeps the dates and the letter

StreamHCM's employee management record includes joining and a confirmation step after probation, and it logs confirmation on the employee timeline with transfers, promotions and exits. The confirmation letter, the appointment letter and any later warning sit in the employee documents vault, with the CNIC, contracts and certificates already described on that module. HR can see the joining date and the confirmation on one profile instead of a folder that only one person can find. See employee management software and HR software in Pakistan.

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Related: appointment letter in Pakistan, notice period in Pakistan, warning letter in Pakistan, final settlement, labour law leave entitlements, onboarding checklist.