How to Get a PESSI Social Security Card in Punjab

You do not apply for a PESSI card yourself. Your employer registers you. That single fact explains why so many workers search for an application form and never find one. The Punjab Employees Social Security Institution works through employers, who register the establishment and pay contributions for the workers on it.

PESSI operates under the provincial social security law of 1965 and runs its own hospitals and dispensaries. We opened pessi.punjab.gov.pk on 26 August 2026 and it responded. The card is often called the Mazdoor Card.

What the card actually gets you

The benefit people know about is medical treatment. The cash benefits are less known and are often the more valuable half.

Dependant cover is the part worth checking early, because a worker who never falls ill may still need the card for a spouse, a child or a parent. Confirm at your local PESSI office exactly who is recorded as your dependants, since an unrecorded dependant is a problem discovered at the worst moment.

Registration is the employer's obligation

An establishment that falls within the law is required to register with PESSI and to contribute for its workers. The contribution is the employer's to pay. A worker cannot buy in independently, and there is no route where you register yourself and pay your own way.

What you can do is find out where you stand.

1. Ask your employer or the HR department whether the establishment is registered.
2. Ask whether you personally have been entered and get your social security number.
3. Take your CNIC and your employment details to the nearest PESSI office.
4. Ask them to confirm your status and who is recorded as your dependants.
5. Get the card issued and check the details printed on it before you leave.

Take proof of employment if you have it, such as an appointment letter, a pay slip, or a salary bank statement. The office is matching you to an employer record, so anything connecting you to the establishment helps.

When the employer has not registered you

This is the common situation and it is uncomfortable, because the person who has to fix it is the person paying you. Start with the assumption of an administrative gap rather than a refusal, since establishments do miss workers, particularly recent joiners and anyone hired through a contractor.

Ask in writing and keep a copy. If the establishment is registered but you are not on it, that is usually correctable in one step. If the establishment itself is not registered, PESSI and the provincial labour department are the bodies that deal with compliance, and the labour department at labour.punjab.gov.pk is where questions about employer obligations belong.

Be realistic about the position you are in. Get advice about how to raise it before you raise it, and use the written record. We are not going to pretend this is risk free for a worker, and it would be dishonest to do so.

PESSI, EOBI and the Sehat Card are three different things

Workers routinely mix these up and then expect a benefit the wrong body provides.

PESSI is provincial social security in Punjab, funded by employer contributions, giving medical care and cash benefits while you are working. EOBI is the federal old age benefits institution and is about pension, which we cover in our guide to checking and applying for an EOBI pension. The Sehat Card is a separate provincial health cover scheme, and what it currently covers is set out in our page on the Sehat Card.

You can be entitled under more than one at the same time. Being registered with PESSI does not remove an EOBI entitlement, and neither replaces the other.

Nobody sells a genuine PESSI card

Because registration runs through employers, an offer to get you a card privately is not a shortcut into the system. Contributions are recorded against an establishment, and a card without that record behind it will fail at the point where you actually need treatment.

Do not pay an agent, and do not hand over your CNIC to anyone promising registration outside your workplace. If a card or number is being offered for a fee, that is the same pattern we describe in our guide to Punjab health programmes, where free entitlements are routinely sold on. If you want to verify your own position, the PESSI office will tell you, and that costs nothing.

Common questions about the PESSI card

Can I register myself with PESSI?

No. Registration and contributions run through the employer. What you can do is confirm your status at a PESSI office and press your employer to enter you.

Does the card cover my family?

Dependants are covered for medical care, but only those recorded against you. Check at the office who is listed rather than assuming.

Is PESSI the same as the Sehat Card?

No. PESSI is contributory social security through employment in Punjab. The Sehat Card is a separate scheme with its own coverage.

What happens if I change jobs?

Your entitlement follows registration and contributions, so tell the new employer and confirm at a PESSI office that the record has moved rather than lapsed.

Does PESSI cover workers outside Punjab?

No. Social security is provincial. Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan run their own institutions under their own rules.

Last checked and sources

Last checked 26 August 2026. We opened pessi.punjab.gov.pk on that date and it responded, and labour.punjab.gov.pk also responded. The description of PESSI as a provincial institution operating under the social security law of 1965, the employer contribution model, and the categories of benefit are as published on the Punjab government portal and PESSI's own pages and as reported. We could not read a current schedule of contribution rates or cash benefit amounts, so no rupee figures are quoted here at all, and anyone needing them should ask the PESSI office directly. We are not registered with PESSI and did not obtain a card, so nothing here describes a process we completed ourselves.