In February 2019, the federal government made it mandatory to write 'Halal' on imported edible items with immediate effect. The ECC in its decision approved the addition of following conditions to the existing requirements in the Import Policy Order, for import of edible products: (i) products have at least (2/3rd of the remaining shelf life; (ii) the ingredients and details of the product (e.g. nutritional facts, usage instructions etc) of food products are required to be printed in Urdu and English language on the consumer packaging; (iii) the logo of the Halal certification body is printed on the consumer packaging; (iv) the labelling under conditions will not be in the form of sticker, overprinting, stamp or scratched labelling; (v) the shipment is accompanied by a "Halal certificate" issued by a Halal certification body, accredited with the Accrediting Body (AB), which is a member of International Halal Accreditation Forum (IHAF) Standard Methodology Institute for Islamic Countries (SMIIC); and (vi) in order to comply with WTO negotiation, similar conditions shall apply to edible products manufactured locally from July 1, 2019 for necessary instructions to be issued to PSQCA and provincial food regulatory authorities.
The embassies of different countries and private sector have approached the government, raising concerns on the decision taken in haste by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet aimed at discouraging imports to contain or reduce import bill.
Pakistani importers also met with the Advisor to Prime Minister, Abdul Razak Dawood and raised concerns on the decision of the ECC which was ratified by the federal cabinet.
On March 9, 2019, Commerce Division, issued an new SRO 438(1)/2019- in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) section 3 of the imports and exports(control) Act, 1950 (XXXIX) of 1950, the federal government has directed that following amendments shall be made in the Import Policy Order, 2016 namely in the order, in appendix B, in table under part-1, in column (1) against serial No.13, in column(4),- (a) in clause (iii) for expression " 66%(2-3rd) of the shelf life remaining from the date of manufacturing," the expression "50% (fifty percent) of the shelf life, calculated from the date of filing of Import General Manifest (IGM)" shall be substituted and shall deemed to have always so substituted ; and (b) after the clauses (iii d) the following new clause shall be inserted and shall be deemed to have always inserted, namely :- (iii e) the provision of clauses (iii b), (iii c), and (iii d) shall take the effect from July 1, 2019.
