KARACHI: The Ministry of Commerce has condoned the requirement of Halal Certificate from the specified body till May 30, 2020.
The ministry notified amendment in the Import Policy order vide SRO 258(1)/2020 issued on Thursday.
In February 2019, Commerce Division notified new labelling requirements for import of food items into the country, making it mandatory that the ingredients of food products are printed in Urdu and English language.
The decision on the new requirements was taken by the ECC of the Cabinet in its meeting on a summary submitted by the Commerce Division. According to the notification, the import of food products shall be subject to the conditions that:
(i) The food products at the time of import have at least 66% of the shelf life remaining from the date of manufacturing.
(ii) The ingredients and details of the product (e.g. nutritional facts, usage instructions etc) of the food product are printed in Urdu and English language on the packaging.
(iii) The logo of the Halal certification body is printed on the consumer packaging.
(iv) The shipment is accompanied by a ‘halal certificate’ issued by a halal Certification Body.
Though the import of food products with ‘haram’ contents was already prohibited under the Import Policy Order, the halal certification was not mandatory to be produced at the time of import