ICAP CA exemption calculator Pakistan 2026
If you already hold ACCA, ICMAP, PIPFA or a four-year degree, ICAP will exempt you from part of the CA qualification — but not the part most people assume, and never unconditionally. This page applies Directive 1.21, effective 2025-07-16, to show which of the eleven PRC and CAF papers your qualification covers, what is left to sit, and the conditions ICAP attaches to each route. An ACCA member, for example, still has 4 CAF papers to pass.
Last updated: 6 September 2026
Directive 1.21 clause Para 3(3)(i)(c). You may claim on more than one qualification you hold.
ICAP papers
Highlighted papers are exempt on this route.
Conditions attached to this route
- CAF-8 Audit and Assurance Essentials is granted ONLY to candidates who have passed AAA — Advanced Audit and Assurance. Holding ACCA without AAA does not carry it.
- Papers you were exempted from at ACCA do not count. The directive requires that you attempted and passed the examination.
Papers still to sit
4 / 11
7 exempt on this route
- PRC papers left
- 0 / 3
- CAF papers left
- 4 / 8
- Clears the CAF stage
- No
Still to sit: CAF-2, CAF-3, CAF-4, CAF-7
An exemption is claimed, not automatic. You apply on ICAP's specified form and pay the prescribed fee, and ICAP decides. CFAP and the Strategic Case Study are never exempted on a prior qualification.
Every ICAP exemption route, and what it actually covers
Directive 1.21 groups exemptions by what you hold. The CAF column is the one that matters — every route below clears the PRC stage, so PRC is not where routes differ.
| You hold | CAF papers exempt | CAF left | Clause |
|---|---|---|---|
| ICMAP — all examinations passed | All eight | 0 | Para 3(3)(i)(a) |
| ACCA (UK) — all examinations passed | CAF-1, CAF-5, CAF-6, CAF-8 | 4 | Para 3(3)(i)(c) |
| PIPFA — all papers passed | CAF-4 | 7 | Para 3(3)(i)(b) |
| CIMA (UK) — all examinations passed | CAF-1, CAF-4, CAF-5, CAF-6, CAF-7 | 3 | Para 3(3)(i)(d) |
| Four-year relevant degree (as defined in Directive 1.01) | All eight | 0 | Para 3(1)(i) |
| Four-year degree from a foreign HEC-recognised institute, AACSB-accredited at the time of issuance | All eight | 0 | Para 3(1)(iii) |
| Four-year degree from a local NBEAC-accredited institute in the W category at the time of issuance | CAF-1, CAF-3, CAF-4, CAF-6, CAF-7 | 3 | Para 3(1)(iv) |
| Any other four-year HEC-recognised degree | None | 8 | Para 3(1)(v) and para 4 |
| HSSC / Intermediate or equivalent | None | 8 | Para 2(2)(ii) |
| A-Levels | None | 8 | Para 2(2)(iii) |
| Non-relevant associate degree, 14 years of education | None | 8 | Para 2(2)(i) |
Source: ICAP Directive 1.21 — Exemptions, effective 2025-07-16 · read 2026-09-06. Issued under section 15 of the Chartered Accountants Ordinance 1961, read with bye-laws 113, 123 and 129A of the Chartered Accountants Bye-Laws 1983.
The ICAP papers an exemption can touch
Three PRC papers and eight CAF papers. Beyond them sit CFAP and the Strategic Case Study, which Directive 1.21 handles separately and which no prior qualification exempts.
| Paper | Title | Stage |
|---|---|---|
| PRC-1 | Fundamentals of Accounting | PRC |
| PRC-2 | Quantitative Analysis for Business | PRC |
| PRC-3 | Business and Economic Insights | PRC |
| CAF-1 | Financial Accounting and Reporting | CAF |
| CAF-2 | Tax Practices | CAF |
| CAF-3 | Data, Systems and Risks | CAF |
| CAF-4 | Business Law Dynamics | CAF |
| CAF-5 | Management Accounting | CAF |
| CAF-6 | Corporate Reporting | CAF |
| CAF-7 | Business Insights and Analysis | CAF |
| CAF-8 | Audit and Assurance Essentials | CAF |
The conditions that get exemption claims refused
- You must apply on ICAP's specified exemption form and pay the prescribed fee. An exemption is claimed, never automatic.
- A candidate may claim exemptions on the basis of more than one qualification held.
- 'Passing' an examination means attempting and passing it. A paper you were EXEMPTED from at another body does not count — except for ICMAP and PIPFA qualifications, where the directive carves out an exception subject to Council conditions.
- CFAP and the Strategic Case Study are dealt with separately in the directive and are not exempted on the strength of a prior qualification.
- For a degree-based CAF exemption, the syllabus must match at least 70% of ICAP's own, or be more advanced, and you must have scored at least 60% in that subject. Both, not either.
- Where an institution's accreditation category matters — AACSB for a foreign degree, NBEAC W category for a local one — the test is its status at the time your degree was issued, not its status today.
From ACCA to CA: what the route actually looks like
This is the most-asked version of the question, so it is worth being concrete. An ACCA member who has passed AAA clears the whole PRC stage and four CAF papers, and still sits CAF-2, CAF-3, CAF-4, CAF-7 before reaching CFAP and the Strategic Case Study.
The pattern is not accidental. The papers ACCA carries across — financial accounting, management accounting, corporate reporting and audit — are the internationally standardised ones. The papers it does not carry are the Pakistan-specific ones: Tax Practices, Business Law Dynamics, and the local systems and analysis papers. No foreign qualification exempts Pakistani tax law, which is the point.
Going the other way? The ACCA exemption calculator shows what a Pakistani degree or an ICAP stage exempts at ACCA, and what the exemption fee comes to in rupees.
Is ACCA a shortcut to CA? The honest arithmetic
It removes three PRC papers and four CAF papers, which is real. What it does not do is shorten the part of CA that takes the longest. The exemptions all sit at the two earlieststages; CFAP and the Strategic Case Study, which are where most candidates spend most of their attempts, are untouched. So does the training requirement, which runs on its own clock regardless of how many papers you were exempted from.
Put concretely: someone who completes ACCA first and then starts CA has spent the time to pass thirteen ACCA papers in order to skip seven ICAP ones. That is a reasonable trade if you wanted ACCA anyway, or if you want a qualification that travels. It is a poor one if CA in Pakistan was always the destination.
ICMAP is the outlier worth knowing about. It clears the entire CAF stage — every route in the directive that does so is either ICMAP or a specific category of four-year degree. If you are choosing a stepping stone rather than a destination, that is the one the directive treats most generously.
What claiming an exemption costs, and when to do it
Each exemption carries a prescribed fee, payable with the exemption form. CalcuPK does not publish the amount, because ICAP revises its fee schedule and the figure was not read from a current ICAP document — ask the Institute for the current fee rather than budgeting from a number found on a forum.
Two practical points about timing. Apply before you plan a session around an exemption: it is claimed, not automatic, and a refusal after you have skipped preparation is expensive in a way the fee is not. And gather the evidence the conditions require — transcripts showing your marks in the specific subject, and the syllabus if the 70% overlap is arguable — before you file, because an incomplete claim is the most common reason one stalls.