Daily Times

Pakistan-China Joint Chamber of Commerce & Industry Vice President Khalid Raffique Choudhry has urged the government to withdraw regulatory hurdles to be faced by importers of refurbished medical equipment.

He met a Pakistan Medical Equipment Importers & Dealers Association (PMEIDA) delegation and learned about the recent problems that emerged under the Drug Regulatory Authority Pakistan’s new condition of licensing for import of the used hospital machinery.

The PMEIDA delegation included Qaiser Anwer, CEO of Al Rafay Traders; Masroor Ahmed Khan, CEO of Bio Vision; Naveed, CEO of Aerow Tech, and Ahad Khan from the KSA International. Salahuddin Hanif, secretary-general of the PCJCCI, was present.

The delegation complained that the Pakistan Customs Department would ask the importers about the DRAP Establishment License which was never sought before due to which the importers were facing significant detention charges and demurrages.

The PMEIDA delegates said that currently all refurb equipment was being imported under the import policy of Pakistan whereas the imported radiology equipment was also being registered in Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority which means that such import is already under a certain legal framework. DRAP has not defined any clear procedure, reflecting as to how to register the same product imported by different parties because all equipment/devices are purchased either from auction houses, general dealers or directly from hospitals in large countries like the US, the UK and Japan, etc. They said as a matter of practice, DRAP was only registering local manufacturers, and foreign manufacturer’s products which fall class A, B, C & D with their sole agents in Pakistan.

Mr Salahuddin Hanif appealed to the government to formulate new rules for import of used medical equipment in consultation with the stakeholders and no restriction of licensing should be imposed at present, as the country was passing through a medical emergency era.

Hospitals may face shortage of medical equipment, because such equipment is not being manufactured locally. He also proposed to allow the import of some banned items like baby incubators and baby warmers.