Pakistani passports are issued to Pakistani citizens for the purpose of international travel. They are issued by the Directorate General of Immigration & Passports of the Ministry of Interior from regional passport offices and Pakistani embassies. Since January 2014, Pakistani passports have been valid for 5 or 10 years. and are not valid for travel to Israel under Pakistani law. Pakistani passports are machine-readable and biometric. Until 2004, Pakistani passports had the bearers particulars written by hand, with the passport picture glued to the cover page. Since 2004, passports have identity information printed on both front and back cover ends. Both of these pages are laminated to prevent modification.
Types
The Passport Act, 1974 and Passport and Visa Manual 1974 regulate the issuance of passports. Pakistan issues three types of passports:
Diplomatic passports - issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to diplomats and other entitled categories.
Official passports - issued to senators, members of the National Assembly, provincial ministers, judges of the supreme/high courts, officers serving with the governments when abroad on official assignments etc. The outer cover color is blue.
Ordinary passports - the outer cover color is green.
A special Hajj passport was formerly issued to those going for Hajj at Makkah, Saudi Arabia. These are no longer issued as ordinary passports can be used for the Hajj.
Ordinary Pakistani passports have a deep green cover with golden-colored content. The Emblem of Pakistan is emblazoned in the center of the front cover. The words 'Islamic Republic of Pakistan' are inscribed above the emblem and 'اسلامی جمہوریہ پاکستان', 'پاسپورٹ' and 'Passport' are inscribed below the emblem. The standard passport contains 36 pages, but frequent travelers can apply for a passport containing 72 or 100 pages.
Passport holder identity
The opening cover end contains the following information:
* Photo of passport holder
* Type 'P'- stands for "Personal", 'D'- stands for "Diplomat", - S'- stands for "Service"
2nd page mentions ANNOTATION on the top and contains the following
* Religion
* Previous passport number
* Signature of the passport holder
3rd page declares that the passport is valid to travel to all countries of the world except Israel.
Passport in 1948
301 Shares The Henley Passport Index – an annual global ranking of countries according to the travel freedom of their citizens – placed the Pakistani passport at #102 in its 2019 list of most and least powerful passports of the world list. HPI has been compiling and issuing this list since 2006 which ranks and lists passports from over a hundred countries according to the number of destinations the citizens of these countries can visit without obtaining a visa. Pakistan’s passport has continuously found itself lingering in the bottom half of the list. Even though global passport rankings were introduced in 2006, it is believed that if the strength of the country’s passport before 2006 was to be explored by using the HPI ranking and scoring model, the Pakistani passport – from 1961 till 1974 – would have been one of the top 30 passports of the world.
The passports contain a note from the President of Pakistan addressing the authorities of all states, identifying the bearer as a citizen of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and requesting and requiring that the bearer be allowed to pass freely without any hindrance and be assisted and protected in any need. The note inside of Pakistani passports states:
Visa requirements
In 2019, Pakistani citizens have visa-free or visa on arrival access to 33 countries and territories.
