The federal order is the part that is published

The one-year hold-on transfer did not start as a Punjab announcement in late September. On 15 January 2026, the Ministry of Commerce issued S.R.O. 61(I)/2026. The ministry's list of SROs records it as an amendment to the procedure for the import of vehicles under personal baggage, transfer of residence, and gift schemes. The instrument amends the Import Policy Order, 2022.

The ownership clause is direct. Vehicles imported under the gift scheme or the transfer of residence scheme are barred from transfer for one year from the date of importation. The year runs from import. The clause does not say the year runs from the day a registration book is issued.

The same order removes personal baggage from the passages that had allowed a vehicle in under that label. It lengthens the gap before the same person can import or gift another car, from 700 days to 850 days, counted from the goods declaration of the last import. A transfer of residence vehicle must come from the country where the overseas Pakistani lives, rather than from a third country used only as a shipping point. Gifts and transfers of residence vehicles must also meet the safety and environmental standards notified for commercial imports by the Ministry of Industries and Production and the Engineering Development Board.

Those are federal conditions. Customs can apply them when a vehicle enters Pakistan. They do not, on their own, change the screen a Punjab clerk uses months later.

What Punjab Excise has said it will do

Around 30 September 2026, the Excise and Taxation Department described how imported vehicles would be handled at registration. The vehicle is to be registered only in the name of the person for whom it was imported. It is not to be transferred to another person until one year has passed. Officials said the computer system would refuse the transfer before that period ends. They described the earlier practice as registration followed by an immediate transfer for vehicles in personal, gift, and residence categories.

An earlier September account gives internal dates. It says the Directorate General sent the federal order to regional offices on 21 August 2026, and that the Lahore region told motor registering authorities on 3 September 2026 to apply it in full. Those circulars were not on a public Punjab Excise page checked for this article, so the dates remain reported rather than confirmed from the documents. The software notice behind the late September system block was also not published in the material reviewed.

No fee, fine, or list of exceptions was published. There is no verified sum in PKR for an early transfer. Family transfers, dealer stock, and court sales had no written exemption in the material checked.

The import date and the registration date are not one clock

This is the point that can cost a buyer.

The Commerce order times one year from importation, and it names gift and transfer of residence vehicles.

Punjab officials, in the late September description, time at one year from registration. They also name three categories: personal, gift, and residence.

Personal baggage is not open for a new import after the January order. A car that arrived under that scheme before the change can still be unregistered or unsold. The word personal in the Punjab description may mean 'older stock', or it may simply repeat the three labels people still use. The department has not published a definition.

Import and registration can fall months apart, so they are not one anniversary. If the provincial screen counts from registration, a buyer who waited a year from the goods declaration can still be refused. If an office follows only the federal sentence, a year from registration can be longer than the order requires. Which date the system uses has not been published.

A commercial import by a registered company is a different file. The January clause does not put that import under the gift and transfer of residence hold. Punjab officials spoke about personal, gift, and residence categories. They did not, in the accounts reviewed, say every company import is locked for a year after Punjab registration. The scheme on the goods declaration is the fact that matters.

What to read before you pay

Before any token sum is paid, read the goods declaration. Note the scheme, the import date, and whose entitlement was used. If there is already a Punjab book, read the registration date and the name on it. If that name is still the importer and a seller promises an instant transfer, ask the motor registering authority. Officials have said the system will stop an early transfer. Public material does not show that every office is on the same build.

A car that cannot be transferred is harder to pledge and harder to sell. No bank circular was reviewed, so no lender rule is stated. Plan for a year in which the book may not move, and price that wait in PKR.

Fuel and the showroom alternative are unchanged by the hold. Listed new models are in new cars in Pakistan: https://autowheels.pk/new-cars. Specs can be placed side by side in car comparisons: https://autowheels.pk/compare. Current pump rates are on fuel prices in Pakistan: https://autowheels.pk/fuel-prices-in-pakistan. Cars already offered locally, imports included, are under used cars: https://autowheels.pk/used-cars. Reported used import flows, including the gift scheme, are discussed in the motor car import bill: https://autowheels.pk/blog/pakistan-car-import-bill-rises-36-to-814-million-in-first-two-months-of-fy27. A hybrid duty concession is not this transfer rule. That separate tax treatment is in hybrid and EV taxes: https://autowheels.pk/blog/pakistan-hybrid-and-ev-taxes-in-2026-what-is-law-now-and-what-is-still-draft.

What is still not on the record

The circular, the words on the transfer screen, and a single start time for the computer block were not found on a government page. Other provinces were not shown to have announced the same block. The federal condition still applies to a gift or transfer of residence import anywhere in Pakistan. The Punjab screen is a provincial step, described at the end of September, with internal instructions only reported from 21 August and 3 September.

Until Punjab Excise publishes the circular and states which date the year uses, the careful reading is the federal text. Gift and transfer of residence vehicles are not to be transferred for one year from importation. Personal baggage is not a current way to bring a vehicle in. The provincial system may count from registration and may still speak of a personal category. Neither account created a new published fee.