A Global Citizenship and Residence advisory organisation called Henley and Partners has ranked the Islamic Republic of Pakistan as a nation with the fourth worst passports in the world. According to the report, Pakistanis had access to thirty-five countries with an on-arrival visa facility until January 2023, which has now come down to thirty-three, News International reported.
Amongst the 227 countries rated on the index, Pakistan, with a population of 220 million, stands at the 100th position. The results of which are estimated via the number of destinations that their residents can access without possessing a prior visa.
In early 2023, Pakistan was ranked among the five worst passports, as per the London-based Henley and Partners. India was marked 80th on the list, with 57 countries that give on-arrival visa facilities to Indians.
Singapore has bagged the first rank ad the most coveted passport in the world, pushing behind Japan, which led the list for the last five years to the third position shared with South Korea, Austria, Finland, and France, along with Luxembourg and Sweden, granting their citizens access to 189 destinations without a prior visa, the News International reported.
The European countries have made a comeback, with Germany, Italy and Spain rising to the second rank offering visa-free destinations access to 190 nations. The United States of America, and the United Kingdom, are witnessing their rankings plummet. Britain has shown improvement, moving up to fourth place, while the US ranking has taken a dip to eighth with access to 183 visa-free destinations, News International reported.
The Henley Passport Index, which ranks 199 passports based on the International Air Transport Association Data (IATA), is regularly updated to reflect changes in visa policy. The average number of visa-free destinations over the years for travellers has doubled from nearly 58 in 2006 to 109 in 2023.
Despite the case, there remains a significant gap in travel freedom between the top-ranked countries and the bottom-ranked countries. The nations that are conflict-ridden such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, possess the least travel privileges with access to just 27, 29, and 30 destinations, respectively, News International reported.
“The general trend over the history of the eighteen-year-old ranking has been towards greater travel freedom, with an average number of destinations travellers are able to access visa-free nearly doubling from 58 in 2006 to 109 in 2023”, a statement by Henley and Partners read.
In the latest ranking, Pakistani travel documents are only ranked higher than those of Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, In the year 2022, as per a report by Henley and Partners, Pakistan was ranked the fourth worst nation in the world concerning international passport value and worth
Once again, in 2020, a report from Henley and Partners showed Pakistan retaining its title as the world’s fourth-worst passport, and it was closer to the rank of Somalia. Netizens erupted in criticism of the Pakistani government and authorities for the bad management of the country as a whole.
Several citizens believe that low-ranking Pakistan comes from the fact that the nation is a host of major terrorist activities and is a hub for terror organisations, and moreover, they are of the opinion that one-fourth of the population of Pakistan lives below the poverty line.
The Henley Passport Index is the original ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. It was originally created by Dr Christian H Kaelin, the ranking is based on the exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association, which maintains the world’s largest and most accurate database of travel information.
It was launched in 2006 and includes 199 different passports. It is updated in real-time throughout the year as and when the visa policy changes come into effect.
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