Pakistan’s abysmal ranking—109 out of 112—on the Henley Passport Index 2022 confirms the lack of mobility Pakistanis possess when travelling on our passport. It comes as no surprise that only 31 countries allow for Pakistanis to visit on a visa-free or on-arrival basis. While some of these states, such as Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Maldives, are popular tourist destinations and very much merit a visit if possible, the absence of any fully developed countries in this list is a big miss for all travel related to business or education.
Countries such as the US or EU member states often need lengthy and costly application processes, with a lot of documentation required. Even if all evidence is furnished, the permission to visit the country is frequently denied, due to a reputation for illegal migration and other undesirable actions.
But a look at the bottom four countries—Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan—indicates that something deeper might be at play. The other three have a reputation of being currently or previously embroiled in serious conflict, to the point where the survival of these states was at stake. In contrast, Pakistan has relatively stable institutions with no major wars being fought inside the country, but our perception on the international stage of being bogged down by terrorism, has a part to play in our problems once more.
Beyond this, another point of convergence for the lower-ranked states is perhaps the lack of verifiability of documents furnished. Even when it comes from official sources, many documents from Pakistan often need additional attestation from the Foreign Office, the Higher Education Commission or even a longer verification process conducted by the embassies themselves.
It is however, difficult to pinpoint a singular reason as the outlier for our poor mobility because of the passport. Perhaps it is a combination of those highlighted above and others. The important aspect is how we go about fixing this. One of the longer and harder battles is the constant contention with managing our reputation on the international stage. The recent political showdown will have done us no favours on the foreign policy front, but whoever takes charge must work on repairing existing fractures and working on better perception management.
Beyond the multilateral approach however, we must also turn our attention on to bilateral relationships and how we can add more states to the visa-free and on-arrival list. States such as China and other important trading partners, must be engaged through the official channels to work out a system that improves Pakistani access to these countries.
This can entail bilateral agreements for fast-track applications, or conversations with states on where we can improve our documentation verifiability to allow for more trust in the process. Naturally, these procedural conversations will have to be taken up with each state separately through diplomatic teams responsible—which makes it a lengthy process—but the potential dividends are surely worth the effort.
The current government has often bemoaned the lack of respect the Pakistani passport gets and pointed to restoring our collective self-respect as the solution. However, the actual answer is much less grand, more practical and requires concerted efforts on part of both the foreign office and the political representation. It is time we start working in this direction.
Countries such as the US or EU member states often need lengthy and costly application processes, with a lot of documentation required. Even if all evidence is furnished, the permission to visit the country is frequently denied, due to a reputation for illegal migration and other undesirable actions.
But a look at the bottom four countries—Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan—indicates that something deeper might be at play. The other three have a reputation of being currently or previously embroiled in serious conflict, to the point where the survival of these states was at stake. In contrast, Pakistan has relatively stable institutions with no major wars being fought inside the country, but our perception on the international stage of being bogged down by terrorism, has a part to play in our problems once more.
Beyond this, another point of convergence for the lower-ranked states is perhaps the lack of verifiability of documents furnished. Even when it comes from official sources, many documents from Pakistan often need additional attestation from the Foreign Office, the Higher Education Commission or even a longer verification process conducted by the embassies themselves.
It is however, difficult to pinpoint a singular reason as the outlier for our poor mobility because of the passport. Perhaps it is a combination of those highlighted above and others. The important aspect is how we go about fixing this. One of the longer and harder battles is the constant contention with managing our reputation on the international stage. The recent political showdown will have done us no favours on the foreign policy front, but whoever takes charge must work on repairing existing fractures and working on better perception management.
Beyond the multilateral approach however, we must also turn our attention on to bilateral relationships and how we can add more states to the visa-free and on-arrival list. States such as China and other important trading partners, must be engaged through the official channels to work out a system that improves Pakistani access to these countries.
This can entail bilateral agreements for fast-track applications, or conversations with states on where we can improve our documentation verifiability to allow for more trust in the process. Naturally, these procedural conversations will have to be taken up with each state separately through diplomatic teams responsible—which makes it a lengthy process—but the potential dividends are surely worth the effort.
The current government has often bemoaned the lack of respect the Pakistani passport gets and pointed to restoring our collective self-respect as the solution. However, the actual answer is much less grand, more practical and requires concerted efforts on part of both the foreign office and the political representation. It is time we start working in this direction.
