"This is a red-letter day in the history of our manufacturing sector," Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said at the roll-out ceremony of the 800 cc Revo, designed and assembled by Karachi-based Adam Motors.

"With this, Pakistan has joined the club of 16 countries having the capability of designing an original car," he said.

However the company admitted that the engine and transmission of the new vehicle were currently being imported from China, Pakistan's long-term economic ally.

"We are getting the technology from China and we will soon start building the engines also," Khan said. "It will be fully indigenous in a couple of years."

The car will cost 269,000 rupees (about 4,500 dollars) to buy, Adam's chief executive officer Feroz Khan told AFP.

The same category of Japanese cars that currently dominate the country's roads cost 315,000 rupees, the company said.