Guides · PSQCA
A shipment on PSQCA's compulsory list does not clear without a Release Order.
Shafiq Traders · Updated 14 September 2026
A long list of imported products cannot clear Pakistani customs without a Conformity Assessment Certificate from the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority. It is not obtained once, in advance, and filed away. PSQCA issues it against the specific consignment, through a Single Declaration filed on the Pakistan Single Window alongside the customs Goods Declaration, and the outcome can be a clean release, a conditional release pending a lab result, or a Non-Conformity Assessment Report that stops the file where it stands. Electronics is where this catches our register hardest, with steel and machinery close behind, and most importers only learn PSQCA exists once a shipment they expected to move will not.
A certificate most importers only meet once they're stuck
A long list of products cannot clear Pakistani customs without a Conformity Assessment Certificate from the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority. Electronics is the vertical this catches most often on our register — cable, motors, UPS systems, household appliances — and steel and machinery sit close behind, with reinforcing bars, pipe and a run of mechanical goods on the same list. Most importers only learn PSQCA exists when a shipment they thought was routine will not move.
The certificate is not a formality customs can waive and not a document this office can produce after the fact. PSQCA issues it against the actual consignment, and a Goods Declaration for a listed product does not clear without it.
What's actually on the list
PSQCA's mandatory list runs across sectors with little in common except that all of them ended up regulated: household electricals and cable, motors and UPS systems, cement and reinforcing steel bars, tyres, paints and detergents, gas appliances, a run of food and beverage categories, and a long tail of smaller items added over the years. It is not a fixed list, and it has grown in stages rather than one clean rewrite, so the only version worth trusting is the one PSQCA itself publishes, not a count carried over from an old news report.
For an electronics importer, that usually means the cable, the motor or the UPS unit is the part that is regulated, even when the finished appliance built around it is not what anyone thought to check. For steel and machinery, it is the bars, the pipe and a chunk of the mechanical goods list, not only the obvious construction materials.
How a listed item actually gets released
This runs alongside the customs Goods Declaration, not before it and not after.
Single Declaration filed on PSW
Once the bill of lading and the import manifest exist, a Single Declaration for the consignment is filed on the Pakistan Single Window. The system reads the HS code and routes it to PSQCA on its own, the same way it routes other regulated goods to their own department.
Documents PSQCA already has reason to trust
If the supplier already holds a lab test report or a Certificate of Conformity for that product, it goes in at this stage. It does not exempt the shipment from PSQCA's own check, but it gives the officer something to weigh the result against instead of starting from nothing.
Lab test or physical inspection
PSQCA can call for further documents, order a sample sent for lab testing, or inspect the consignment itself. Each carries its own fee, paid separately from the customs duty and tax on the same declaration.
Release Order: conforming or not
A conforming result comes back as a Temporary Release Certificate or Conformity Assessment Report, and the Goods Declaration can proceed. A non-conforming result comes back as a Non-Conformity Assessment Report, and the consignment is held rather than cleared.
What a missing certificate actually does to the file
| Situation | What happens | What it is not |
|---|---|---|
| No PSQCA clearance filed at all | The Goods Declaration for that HS code sits without a Release Order, and customs will not release it on the strength of the invoice alone | Not something a clearing agent can argue around at the terminal |
| Sample sent for lab testing | The consignment can be released into the importer's custody for safekeeping while the result is pending, but it cannot be sold, used or moved on | Not the same thing as the goods being cleared |
| Non-Conformity Assessment Report issued | The consignment is treated as failing, with a review request the only way back | Not a result this office can negotiate away at the port |
Companies we have cleared for in electronics
Distributors and manufacturers on our register whose imports regularly sit on PSQCA's compulsory list — cable, motors, UPS systems and the appliances built around them.
A.T Alfa · Bellco Trading Company · Games Vision · A M B Mobile Phone · Imazum Tech · Jannat LED House · Khurshid Traders · KR Technologies · M.Latif Electronics · Mobile Hut · Nobel TV · Proskit Trading Company · Unique Traders · Universal Business System · Wasim Radio Traders · Zam Zam Traders
Arranging a lab report or a Certificate of Conformity from your supplier before the goods ship does not exempt the shipment from PSQCA's own sampling once it lands. It gives the officer something to weigh the result against. It is not a way around the check, and anyone who tells you it is has not read the certificate.
Questions
What importers ask us about PSQCA
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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