PAMA Urges Govt to Suspend New EDB Used Car Import Rules in Pakistan

PAMA Urges Govt to Suspend New EDB Rules for Used Car Imports in Pakistan

The Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association has written to the government asking it to suspend and review an Engineering Development Board notification dated 30 September 2026 that relaxes the rules for the commercial import of used cars in Pakistan. PAMA says the notification removes the minimum capital requirement and the after-sales service obligation for importers, provides no effective recall mechanism, and shifts vehicle inspection from the EDB to the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority.

PAMA has not claimed the rules are illegal. It has asked for the notification to be held back and for the industry to be consulted. As of publication the government has not suspended it, and it remains in force.

One distinction matters more in this story than it first appears: the commercial import of used cars in Pakistan is a different channel from the gift, transfer of residence and personal baggage schemes that govern imported cars in Pakistan. Keep it in mind when you reach the import figures further down, because the two get mixed together constantly.

What PAMA Has Actually Asked For

PAMA's Director General, Razi ur Rahman, wrote to Haroon Akhtar Khan, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Industries and Production. The request is specific: review the 30 September notification, suspend it in the meantime, and hold meaningful consultation with the industry before a revised framework is issued.

That framing is narrower than "PAMA opposes used car imports." The letter is about the conditions attached to commercial importing, not whether importing should be allowed at all. The Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association represents the assemblers who build cars locally, and the EDB sits under the Ministry of Industries and Production the same ministry PAMA has written to.

New Used Car Import Rules in Pakistan 2026: What Changed on 30 September

The 30 September 2026 notification replaces one dated 30 September 2025 exactly a year apart. The changes below are as described in PAMA's letter. The notification's own text has not been published on the EDB website, so the primary document is not publicly verifiable at the time of writing.

Key changes between Pakistan's 2025 and 2026 commercial used-vehicle import frameworks, as described in PAMA's letter.

The capital change has the most practical effect. With the threshold gone, reporting indicates any tax-registered individual or firm can import commercially including one not registered with the SECP. The earlier framework pointed the other way: in April 2026 the EDB was reported to have issued a code of conduct requiring commercial used-vehicle importers to be registered under the Companies Act 2017, to have vehicle import as their principal business, and to run or partner with a nationwide 3S sales, service and spare-parts network.

PAMA's objection is that this removes the filters without adding a replacement: an importer with no capital requirement, no after-sales obligation and no recall duty can sell a car and carry no continuing responsibility for it. For what the framework still does require on safety and documentation, see our breakdown of the new used car import safety rules.

What Is PSQCA's Role in Used Car Imports?

Under the new framework, pre-shipment and post-shipment inspection of commercially imported used vehicles moves from the EDB to PSQCA, which carries it out through registered inspection agencies rather than directly. The enabling instrument is SRO 2443(I)/2025, dated 16 December 2025, which amends the Import Policy Order 2022 to make an inspection agency eligible for pre-shipment work if it is registered with PSQCA and holds international accreditation from ILAC or GLOBAC.

Two details are worth being precise about, because they are easy to get wrong. First, SRO 2443 does not mention used or second-hand vehicles anywhere. It is a general amendment to the pre-shipment inspection regime that the used-vehicle framework now relies on, not a used-car SRO. Second, PSQCA's own published import and export inspection role describes ISO 17020 pre- and post-shipment inspection at Pakistan's sea ports, dry ports and airports under the Import Policy Order 2016 and its Appendix-N list of mandatory products food, non-food, and electrical and electronics. Vehicles are not listed on it.

There is also a capacity question, raised publicly rather than hypothetically: PSQCA's chief executive has said inspections are done by registered inspection agencies and that only two local agents are currently registered. Two agents inspecting a channel that moved more than two thousand vehicles in a month is the practical version of PAMA's complaint. Neither the Ministry of Commerce SRO index nor PSQCA's own pages publish a vehicle-specific inspection standard.

Used Car Imports in Pakistan Surge in 2026

The figures PAMA cites come from Ministry of Commerce data, and they are the reason the letter was written now rather than a year ago.

Ministry of Commerce figures for May to September 2026, with the Gift Scheme breakdown where it has been reported.

September is 47 times May's figure and 57% above August. The five months total 6,550 vehicles, and September's rate annualises to roughly 27,000 a year. August's dip of 493 units a 25% fall from July is the only break in the trend.

But the second column changes what this table means, and it is the detail most coverage leaves out. Where the breakdown has been published, the overwhelming majority arrived under the Gift Scheme rather than through the commercial channel: 806 of June's 843, 1,876 of July's 1,938 and 2,238 of September's 2,276 98.3% of the September figure. May's 48 came mainly via personal baggage.

So this series is widely described as commercial used-vehicle imports while the published breakdown shows it is almost entirely a gift and baggage surge, and we are not going to pretend those two descriptions agree. It matters for one reason: if the surge is running through the gift channel, a notification governing the commercial channel did not cause it an argument the government may well make in reply. For the broader trend, see our report on car imports in Pakistan.

Why PAMA Warns of More Than Rs 50 Billion in Losses

PAMA's letter states that a return to FY2025-26 import volumes could result in losses exceeding Rs 50 billion for the domestic automotive industry and its vendor network. That is an estimate made by an industry association about a scenario, not a recorded loss, and it should be read that way.

The letter also says commercially imported used vehicles enjoy built-in cost advantages including depreciation benefits of up to 36%. Again, this is PAMA's argument rather than an independently established rule depreciation allowances depend on the vehicle's age and the applicable valuation, and 36% is the upper end PAMA cites, not a flat rate every importer receives.

How Used Car Imports Could Affect Pakistan's Auto Industry

The parts industry has put a different number on the same month. PAAPAM's chairman, Abdul Rehman Aizaz, has said locally produced cars contain up to 60% local content by value, averaging around Rs 1.5 million of local parts per vehicle, and that September's 2,276 imported used vehicles therefore displaced about Rs 3.4 billion of local parts production. That arithmetic holds: 2,276 multiplied by Rs 1.5 million is Rs 3.41 billion.

Note that PAAPAM's Rs 3.4 billion and PAMA's Rs 50 billion are different measurements and cannot be added together. One is a single month of displaced parts value; the other is an estimate of annual losses across assemblers and vendors under a different volume scenario.

Importers see it differently. The All Pakistan Car Dealers and Importers Association's position, stated publicly by Mian Shoaib Ahmed, is that used-car imports are legal when carried out under government regulations and that the trade will keep growing. Both things can be true: the imports can be lawful and still reduce local parts volume. That tension runs through PAAPAM's concerns over Pakistan's Auto Policy and the wider question of Pakistan's industrial policy for the auto sector.

Timing Adds to the Concern

The notification lands while the next auto policy is still unfinished, and the industry's complaint is about sequencing: import rules are being loosened before the framework that is supposed to set tariffs and localisation targets has been settled. For what is proposed there, see Pakistan Auto Policy 2026-31 and car import duties and the latest Pakistan Auto Policy 2026-31 update — still a draft, not law.

Is the Notification Itself Under Question?

Separately from PAMA's letter, press reports in early October said the Federal Investigation Agency had sought records from the EDB, and raised questions about whether the notification was issued with the approval required. None of this has been officially confirmed, no agency has published findings, and the major business dailies covering PAMA's letter did not carry it. We are including it only because it is relevant to whether the notification survives, and we are labelling it clearly as unverified reporting rather than fact. Treat it as an open question, not a conclusion.

What Do the New Rules Mean for Used Car Buyers?

For a buyer, the practical change is that the person selling you a commercially imported used car may now have fewer obligations to you after the sale than they would have had a year ago. With the minimum capital and after-sales requirements removed and no recall mechanism established, there is less in the framework that compels an importer to stay reachable once the car has left the lot.

That does not make imported used cars a bad purchase. It makes the pre-purchase check more important than it already was. Confirm these yourself rather than assuming the rules confirm them for you: who imported the vehicle, and whether that entity is a registered company you can locate; which inspection the car actually went through, and whether you can see the report rather than being told one exists; the auction sheet and odometer history, since mileage and accident history are the two things most often misrepresented on the import of used cars in Pakistan; whether spare parts for that exact model are available here at all, because a model never assembled or officially sold in Pakistan can be cheap to buy and expensive to keep; and who you call if something fails in the first month — a name and a number, not a shop.

If you are buying, our used car buying checklist covers the inspection points in order, and applies to imported cars as much as locally assembled ones.

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