Since the establishment of the Pakistan National Accreditation Council (PNAC) in 1998 and its becoming functional in 2001, the most frequently asked questions is ‘when will PNAC get international recognition by signing the Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) with relevant international agencies? Why is PNAC waiting till 2007 to sign MRA?’

The matter is not so simple and requires clarification and explanation. Moreover, without any real insight to MRA, many assume that signing this deal with the relevant regional and international agencies will establish international recognition of PNAC and certificates issued by accredited bodies of PNAC will be accepted worldwide automatically. To reduce technical barriers to trade arising from the testing and certification of a global network of accreditation has been established since the early 90’s with the aim of saving time and cost due to multiple testing, inspections visits, transportation of equipment etc.

The International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) and the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) are two apex bodies at that build upon the existing or developing regional arrangements established around the world. The bodies participating in these regional arrangements are responsible for maintaining the necessary confidence in accreditation bodies from their region that are signatories to the new ILAC Arrangement.

Currently the European Cooperation for Accreditation (EA) and the Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC) are the only ILAC-recognised regions with acceptable mutual recognition arrangements (MRAs) and evaluation procedures.

The history of signing MRAs is not very long. On November 19, 1997, six APEC member economies signed a Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) under which signatory bodies agreed to recognise the technical equivalence of test reports and calibration certificates issued by their accredited laboratories. To this date there are 17 countries, which are MRA signatories to APLAC. There are 14 Multilateral Agreement (MLA) signatories with PAC for QMS, 9 or EMS and 3 for product certification. There are certain requirements necessary and hence not every accreditation body is a member of APLAC/ILAC. The Pakistani Council, however, is due to sign the agreement in 2007. As to the reasons for this wait, it would be beneficial to first discuss the procedure for signing MRA. Signing of MRA is done in a number of stages: the first is to establish an accreditation body. The second stage requires preparing a documented system according to ISO Standard 17011 and at the same time ensuring its implementation.

The third stage is to start accreditation of conformity assessment bodies such as laboratories, certification bodies. The fourth stage is to qualify for membership of APLAC, ILAC by at least accrediting three labs demonstrating that a quality management system of accrediting according to ISO 17011 is developed and implemented. PNAC has successfully accredited more than 21 labs and have already acquired membership of ILAC.

The fifth and the final stage is getting peer evaluation. PNAC has already applied for peer evaluation to complete the final stage of becoming MRA signatory of APLAC and PAC and will complete its final stage in 2007.

Peer evaluation is a lengthy process. It is conducted by a team of experts from other accreditation bodies assigned by APLAC. During this process, the team first checks the implementation of the documents prepared and then follows with an assessment team to witness the competence of assessors and technical assessors and checks harmonisation among the assessors on various technical issues.

Besides the manual, procedures, policies of accreditation and the conduct of various technical courses all come under thorough review to ensure compliances to international requirements. This activity is conducted after every four years to maintain membership as MRA signatory.

While the final stage is the lengthiest, it is the third stage that is the toughest. When PNAC was launching its accreditation scheme, not even a single expert on accreditation was available in the country.

Further accreditation is not a process that can be started overnight but rather is a process that needs to be done in several phases. On the one hand PNAC had to develop its capacity to conduct these assessments and on the other hand awareness had to be raised among laboratories regarding the need for accreditation and then training on ISO 17025 - an international standard for laboratory management. This, however, is easier said than done as the quality infrastructure of the country needed improvement. The National Physical and Standards Laboratory (NPSL) needed to be strengthened to provide international traceability to laboratories. Not even a single Proficiency Testing (PT) provider is available in the country, which basically meant conducting tests around the world and this proved to be quite costly.