ISLAMABAD (The Thursday Times) — The Ministry of Commerce has asked the provinces to strictly enforce a one-year ban on transferring used cars imported under the schemes for overseas Pakistanis, saying traders have been using the facilities to bring in vehicles for resale.
In letters to provincial chief secretaries, the ministry said cars imported under the Gift Scheme and the Transfer of Residence Scheme must be registered only in the name of the designated beneficiary and cannot be transferred to anyone else during the first year.
Under the rules, a car imported under the Gift Scheme has to be registered to the eligible family member receiving it, while one brought in under the Transfer of Residence Scheme has to be registered to the overseas Pakistani concerned.
The ministry said the schemes, set out in the Import Policy Order 2022, were meant to help genuine overseas Pakistanis bring in a car for their own use or as a gift to their family. They were not meant for commercial traders using overseas Pakistanis’ eligibility to run a car business, it said.
A federal rule, enforced by the provinces
Imports are a federal matter, but vehicle registration and ownership transfers are handled by the provinces’ Excise, Taxation and Narcotics Control departments. The ministry warned that if those departments applied the rules differently, letting cars be registered or transferred to other people during the restricted period, the safeguard in the federal import policy could be undermined.
The National Assembly Standing Committee on Commerce took up the issue on September 3 and recommended that the ministry work with the provinces to apply SRO 61(I)/2026 the same way everywhere. The ministry has since written to the Balochistan government asking it to direct its departments not to register or transfer such vehicles to anyone other than the designated beneficiary during the restricted period, and has asked for priority action.
The one-year restriction itself is not new. It was added to the import rules earlier this year through SRO 61(I)/2026, which also scrapped the Personal Baggage Scheme. That left the gift and residence-transfer schemes as the only routes for overseas Pakistanis to bring in a used car.
What buyers should check
A car on a showroom floor may not be transferable into a buyer’s name straight away. Where the restriction applies, the vehicle has to stay registered to the original beneficiary until the year is up, so a buyer who pays early may not be able to take legal ownership for months.
Buyers are advised to check a car’s import date, its registered owner, and whether the one-year period has passed before handing over money.
The move comes as the government rolls out a new auto policy that cuts duties on imported cars and parts each year for five years, a change local carmakers have warned could bring in a flood of used imports. TT reported the policy’s main points here.
Read more: Auto policy sets $6bn export goal, makes local parts compulsory
