What exactly is the Import Policy Order?

A notification from the Ministry of Commerce, issued under the Import and Export (Control) Act, that sets which goods can be brought into Pakistan, which cannot, and which can only under a stated condition. It is separate from the customs tariff that sets duty.

Where do I find the version that is actually current?

The Ministry of Commerce's own site. A version anywhere else — a forum, a law firm's blog post, a saved PDF — is only as current as the day someone copied it, and this Order is amended too often for that to be safe.

My item isn't named in Appendix A or Appendix B. Am I free to import it?

Against this Order, yes. You still need the standing registration any import requires — an NTN and enrolment on the Pakistan Single Window — but the goods themselves carry no separate restriction.

My PCT heading is in Appendix B. Does that mean I can't import it?

No. It means the import needs whatever the entry names — usually an NOC or approval from a specific department — before the declaration can be filed. What is required is written against the heading itself, not left general.

Can the Import Policy Order change while my shipment is already on the water?

Yes. Amendments take effect from the date the amending SRO is notified, not from when a shipment left. We check the Order again at filing for exactly this reason.

Is the Import Policy Order the same thing as an import licence?

No. Pakistan does not issue a general import licence at all. The Order controls specific goods; what every importer separately needs is registration, covered on our import licence page.

Can an agent get an exception made for something in Appendix A?

No. A banned heading is banned under the Order itself, not by an official's discretion at the port. Anybody offering to arrange an exception is offering something that does not exist.

Guides · Import Policy Order

The document that decides whether your goods can enter at all.

Shafiq Traders · Updated 13 September 2026

The Import Policy Order is issued by the Ministry of Commerce, not FBR, and it answers a question the tariff never does: whether a good can be brought into Pakistan at all. The version in force is the Import Policy Order, 2022 (SRO 545(I)/2022), and it is amended by SRO every few weeks. Anything not named in its Appendix A is not banned; anything not named in Appendix B carries no restriction. An item in Appendix A cannot be imported under the current Order. An item in Appendix B can be, but only against whatever condition — an NOC, a licence, an approval from a named authority — is written against that heading. We check the current Order against your PCT heading before we quote and again when we file, because the entry against a heading can move between the two.

A commerce document, not a customs one

The Import Policy Order comes from the Ministry of Commerce. The tariff, the duty, the sales tax — those sit with FBR. The two get treated as one subject because they arrive on the same declaration, but they answer different questions. The tariff prices an import. The Import Policy Order decides whether it is allowed to happen.

The version in force is the Import Policy Order, 2022, issued under SRO 545(I)/2022 on 22 April 2022. It has not been replaced since. It has been amended, heading by heading, a great many times — the Ministry notified two more amendments in July 2026 alone.

How the Order is structured

Ministry of Commerce, Import Policy Order 2022 (SRO 545(I)/2022) and its amending SROs. Checked September 2026.
Standing	What it means	What it takes to import
Not named in Appendix A or B	Freely importable	An ordinary declaration — no separate authorisation for the goods themselves
Named in Appendix A	Banned	Cannot be imported under the current Order. The Order itself would have to change first
Named in Appendix B	Restricted	Importable, but only against the specific condition written against that heading — an NOC, a licence, or a named authority's approval

How we actually check a heading against it

Settle the PCT heading first

The Order is indexed by Pakistan Customs Tariff heading, not by product name. Nothing in the next step means anything until the 8-digit heading is settled.

Read Appendix A against it

If the heading is there, the discussion is over for this Order. No quota, no letter, no relationship changes it.

Read Appendix B against it

An entry here is a condition, not a refusal. The wording against the heading names exactly what satisfies it and which department issues it.

Confirm what the Pakistan Single Window does with it

PSW reads the declared PCT code against the current Order at the time of filing. A restricted heading filed without its condition attached does not move past that check, whatever the situation looked like when the order was placed.

Why a saved copy is the wrong copy

A PDF of the Order downloaded last year is a record of the Order as it stood last year. The Ministry issues an amending SRO every few weeks — adding a heading to Appendix B, lifting a condition, narrowing one. None of that reaches a copy already sitting in someone's downloads folder or on a trade forum.

It reaches the Ministry of Commerce's own SRO page, because that is where it was published in the first place. That is also why almost every page ranking for this term is a raw, undated PDF: whoever wrote it copied the document once and stopped.

A clear reading today is not a guarantee for a shipment that lands in three months. We check the Order against your heading when we quote, and again when the declaration goes in. The entry against a PCT code can change in the time between an order being placed and a ship berthing, and nothing notifies an importer when it does. That gap belongs to the Ministry, not to us, but pretending it does not exist would be doing you a disservice.

Questions

What importers ask about the Import Policy Order

Contact

Tell us what is coming.

Give us the product, the port and roughly when the vessel is due, and we will tell you what the clearance involves and what it will cost.

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