An attempt was made to cohesively assess the aerobic nitrification treatment (ANT) and bioelectrochemical denitrification treatment (DNT) of real-field pharmaceutical wastewater. The ANT resulted in the removal of 73% ammonium and 78.5% organic carbon content. Subsequently, the outlet of ANT reactor was fed to DNT reactor and the relative influence of external circuitry was investigated. The DNT reactor operated with closed circuit mode (CCM) resulted in similar to 83% of nitrates and % similar to 61% of organic content removal even at low C/N ratio of 2.18. The other pollutant concentrations viz., phosphates, sulfates and total dissolved salts were also significantly removed by both ANT and DNT processes. In this study, a sequential integration of both ANT and DNT processes exhibited high potential for self-sustained energy-positive nutrient removal. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.