Overview
The technology department of the Ministry of Science and Technology sponsors and encourages public and private organizations in the standardization of products and services according to ISO standards. In this regard, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Commerce have jointly launched an incentive program for entrepreneurs to facilitate their ISO certification. This program provides an incentive grant for achieving ISO 9000/14000 certification. Further information is available on Pakistan Government Portal.
Standards
The Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) is the national standards body. The functions of PSQCA include the establishment and enforcement of national standards, registration of inspection agencies, and assessment of industrial raw materials and finished products for compliance with international standards.
PSQCA has been designated as the WTO-TBT National Enquiry Point on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) of Pakistan under the TBT Agreement (Article 10.1, 10.2 and 10.3) to facilitate the exporters/traders/ manufacturers in the country and importers from WTO member countries. This enquiry point is responsible to disseminate information on TBT notifications, deals with queries regarding standards, technical regulations, and conformity assessment procedures.
Conformity Assessment
The Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority is responsible for the conformity assessment. This organization may be reached as follows:
Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority
Ministry of Science and Technology
Block 77, Pak Secretariat
Karachi, Pakistan
Tel: 92-21-99206260
Fax: 92-21-99206263
Testing, Inspection, and Certification
Product Certification
The Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority is responsible for product certification. This organization may be reached as follows:
Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority
Ministry of Science and Technology
Block 77, Pak Secretariat
Karachi, Pakistan
Tel: 92-21-99206260
Fax: 92-21-99206263
Accreditation
The Pakistan National Accreditation Council (PNAC), Ministry of Science and Technology, Islamabad handles accreditation matters. Pakistan National Accreditation Council signed the Mutual Recognition Arrangement with International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) and Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC), which has put Pakistan at par with the members of these organizations including U.S.A and E.U. in terms of accreditation of testing and calibration laboratories. The contact for PNAC is as follows:
Pakistan National Accreditation Council
Ground Floor, 1-C, Constitution Avenue,
Opposite Prime Minister Office, G-5/2
Islamabad, Pakistan
Tel: 92-51-922-2310
Fax: 92-51-922-2312
E-mail: dg@pnac.org.pk
Publication of technical regulations
The Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) and the Ministry of Science and Technology regularly publish technical regulations governing industry standards.
Use ePing to review proposed technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures
The ePing SPS&TBT platform (https://epingalert.org/), or “ePing”, provides access to notifications made by WTO Members under the Agreements on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), distributed by the WTO from January 16, 1995 to present. ePing is available to all stakeholders free of charge and does not require registration unless the user wishes to receive customized e-mail alerts. Use it to browse notifications on past as well as new draft and updated product regulations, food safety and animal and plant health standards and regulations, find information on trade concerns discussed in the WTO SPS and TBT Committees, locate information on SPS/TBT Enquiry Points and notification authorities, and to follow and review current and past notifications concerning regulatory actions on products, packaging, labeling, food safety and animal and plant health measures in markets of interest.
Notify U.S., operated and maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) since 2003 to distribute and provide access to notifications (and associated draft texts) made under the WTO TBT Agreement for US stakeholders, has reached its end of life. Per obligation under the TBT Agreement, each WTO Member operates a national TBT (and an SPS) Enquiry Point. National TBT Enquiry Points are authorized to accept comments and official communications from other national TBT Enquiry Points, which are NOT part of the WTO or the WTO Secretariat. All comment submissions from U.S. stakeholders, including businesses, trade associations, U.S domiciled standards development organizations and conformity assessment bodies, consumers, or U.S. government agencies on notifications to the WTO TBT Committee should be sent directly to the USA WTO TBT Inquiry Point. Refer to the comment guidance at https://tsapps.nist.gov/notifyus/data/guidance/guidance.cfm for further information.
Contact Information
All government ministries and departments may be accessed through the Pakistan Government Portal.