The rules that already existed
Commercial import of used vehicles was already opened before this week. On 30 September 2025, the Ministry of Commerce issued S.R.O. 1895(I)/2025. As circulated, it allows commercial import of used vehicles under the customs headings for larger passenger vehicles, cars, goods vehicles, and motorcycles. Age was limited to under five years until 30 June 2026, after which that cap was due to end. The Engineering Development Board was to handle safety, quality, and environmental certification.
The board later set registration criteria for companies in this trade. The importer must be incorporated under the Companies Act, 2017. A proprietorship is not eligible. The company needs a National Tax Number, must be an active sales tax filer with the Federal Board of Revenue, and must hold an EDB registration certificate before it imports. Vehicle and duty payments must pass through authorised banking channels. The criteria also require a sales, service, and spare parts network and a written assurance on parts.
Inspection in that criterion has two steps. A certificate is required before the vehicle is shipped from an accredited body against the EDB notification of 30 September 2025 on WP.29 standards. After arrival, the vehicle is to be checked again at an EDB-designated facility, paid for by the importer, by the same inspection company. Those inspection companies are to register with the EDB.
What the 30 September 2026 notice is said to change
On 30 September 2026, an officer at the EDB is reported to have signed another notice. It was not found on a gazette page or an EDB page. The public descriptions do not agree.
The longer accounts say proprietorships and partnership firms may import used vehicles for sale if they hold a valid National Tax Number and sales tax registration. They say the Companies Act company test was removed, and so was a minimum capital condition. They say 62 United Nations Economic Commission for Europe WP.29 safety and environmental regulations remain. On inspection, they say the importer needs a certificate before shipment from an internationally accredited body registered with the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority. After arrival, a local representative of that same company checks the documents. That is a paper check, not the physical inspection at an EDB facility in the 2025 criteria.
A shorter account dated 2 October 2026 describes the same day differently. It says the government formally allowed commercial import, that importers must operate as registered companies and be registered taxpayers, that payments must go through banking channels, and that vehicles brought from Japan need inspection before shipment under those 62 WP.29 regulations. It adds that a legal entity then verifies the documents in Pakistan.
Both versions share a certificate before shipment and a document check after arrival. They conflict on eligibility. One opens the trade to proprietorships and partnerships and drops a capital test. The other keeps a registered company. Banking channels were already in the EDB company criteria, and nothing reviewed here shows a signed clause cancelling them or the spare parts network.
Until the Ministry of Industries and Production, the EDB, or customs publishes the notice, neither version is a safe basis for shipping a vehicle.
Approval was already unfinished
The Economic Coordination Committee is reported to have deferred the inspection question and asked for more work on the EDB system. A committee headed by Federal Minister Musadik Malik is reported to be looking at the overlap between the EDB and the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority. Accounts of his position say commercial used vehicle imports should stay closed until that committee reports to the Prime Minister. The 30 September notice is described as having gone out anyway, and the EDB is said to owe the Prime Minister a report.
No order was found that stays, quashes, withdraws, or confirms the notice. A forwarded image is not proof a collectorate will clear the file.
The FIA visit and the officer who signed
From 1 October 2026, it was reported that a Federal Investigation Agency team came to the EDB office and asked for records on policies and recruitments, including the notice. Some accounts call the visit a raid and say phones and laptops were taken. An FIA statement confirming the visit, any seizure, or any charge was not found. An alleged link between importers and EDB officials is not a finding. No official order naming an officer was found, so no name is used.
Accounts also disagree on the officer who signed. Some say he was removed at once. A fuller account says he was told to report to the Establishment Division and was still at the EDB office on 1 October. A claim that he worked at the board without ministry approval was not backed by an order that could be read here. Removal and an unfollowed direction are not the same thing, and it is unclear which occurred.
A separate account says the prime minister ended the chief executive contract on the advice of a two-member committee, after which the Islamabad High Court granted a stay, and he returned to work. That order was not found. Even if true, it is about the post, not a judgement on the import notice.
What to do while this is unsettled
Buyers should treat cars already in the country, and files customs is actually clearing, as the market that exists. Do not pay extra for a vehicle said to depend on the new notice unless a clearing agent can show the written practice at the port. A commercial shipment should assume the stricter 2025 reading until an official text says otherwise. That means a Companies Act company, an active tax file, EDB registration, banking channel payments, and the earlier inspection path. A proprietorship should not fund a shipment on the disputed notice alone. Gifts and transfers of residence cars follow the Ministry of Commerce order of 15 January 2026, including a one-year bar on transfer. That order is separate from this EDB fight.
While that door is disputed, a locally sold new car is simpler to price. See https://autowheels.pk/new-cars for new cars in Pakistan, https://autowheels.pk/compare for car comparisons, and https://autowheels.pk/fuel-prices-in-pakistan for fuel prices in Pakistan. Stock already offered locally is under https://autowheels.pk/used-cars used cars. The recent legal import bill is explained at https://autowheels.pk/blog/pakistan-car-import-bill-rises-36-to-814-million-in-first-two-months-of-fy27. Hybrid and electric tax is a different statute, set out at https://autowheels.pk/blog/pakistan-hybrid-and-ev-taxes-in-2026-what-is-law-now-and-what-is-still-draft.