Islamabad (National Times) For the fourth straight year, the Pakistani passport has been ranked the fourth worst by this year’s Henley Passport Index, a ranking of the world’s 199 passports according to the number of destinations their owners can access without a prior visa.
In the latest ranking issued on Tuesday, Pakistan’s travel document (100th place — tied with Yemen) is only ranked higher than those of Iraq (101), Syria (102) and Afghanistan (103) — same as last year.
Pakistan and Yemen’s passports permit visa-free access to 33 states, Iraq’s allows travel to 31, Syria’s gives access to 28 destinations and Afghanistan’s travel document only affords the bearer access to 26 destinations.
“Afghanistan remains firmly entrenched as the world’s weakest passport, losing access to yet another destination over the past six months, leaving its citizens with access to only 26 countries visa-free — the lowest score ever recorded in history of the 19-year-old index,” a press release said.
The top spot yet again belonged to Singapore, as its passport provides citizens visa-free access to 195 destinations, setting a “new record score”.
Germany, Italy, Japan, France and Spain tied for 2nd place, with each passport allowing access to 192 destinations.
At 3rd place were Austria, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, South Korea and Sweden with access to 191 destinations.
The United Kingdom was ranked 4th with Belgium, Denmark, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland with access to 190 states while the United States ranked 8th with access to 186 destinations.
Also notable was the entry of the United Arab Emirates into the top 10 for the first time, having added an “impressive” 152 destinations since the index’s inception in 2006 to achieve its current visa-free score of 185, and rising a “remarkable” 53 places in the ranking from 62nd to 9th position in the process.
The press release quoted Henley & Partners CEO Dr Juerg Steffen as saying that the UAE’s “meteoric ascent” was the result of “deliberate and concerted efforts by the Emirati government to position the UAE as a global hub for business, tourism, and investment.
“Our research has consistently shown a strong correlation between a country’s visa-free score and its economic prosperity. Nations with higher visa-free scores tend to enjoy greater GDP per capita, increased foreign direct investment and more robust international trade relationships.”
