Describes the country's standards landscape, identifies the national standards and accreditation bodies, and lists the main national testing organization(s) and conformity assessment bodies.
Last Published: 7/10/2019

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 here.

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 also 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.

NIST Notify U.S. Service

Member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are required under the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement) to report to the WTO all proposed technical regulations that could affect trade with other Member countries. Notify U.S. is a free, web-based e-mail subscription service that offers an opportunity to review and comment on proposed foreign technical regulations that can affect your access to international markets. Register online.

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.

Contact Information

All government ministries and departments may be accessed through the website.

Prepared by our U.S. Embassies abroad. With its network of 108 offices across the United States and in more than 75 countries, the U.S. Commercial Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce utilizes its global presence and international marketing expertise to help U.S. companies sell their products and services worldwide. Locate the U.S. Commercial Service trade specialist in the U.S. nearest you by visiting http://export.gov/usoffices.