Skip to main content

Pakistani passport ranked 4th worst in world for fourth straight year

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.”


http://dlvr.it/TB20Qb

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3 drug pushers, bootlegger held

Islamabad :Islamabad Industrial Area Police have arrested three drug pushers and a bootlegger besides recovery of narcotics and 120 liter liquor from them, a police spokesman said.According to details, a police team of Industrial Area police station arrested three drug pushers namely Kamran, Irfan and Shamoon Masih and recovered 320 gram heroin and 210 gram hashish from them,.Another police team arrested a bootlegger namely Ansar Javed and recovered 120 liter wine, bottles, stickers and brewing equipment from him. Cases have been registered against these nabbed persons and further investigation is underway from them.SP (Industrial Area) Zubair Ahmad Shaikh has said that Industrial Area zone police is doing its job efficiently and crackdown against criminals would be continued.Despite the sit in, he said Islamabad Police has been performing its duty quite efficiently and has successfully managed to maintain the daily life in the Capital.In this regard, Senior Police officers including S...
Post a Comment
Read more

‘Aziz Bhatti Shaheed My Brother, My Hero’

Real heroes are heroes of every one. They are not controversial. Nations love them more than anything. Major Aziz Bhatti Shaheed is among those real-time heroes of 1965 War, who not only stood firm to face the enemy aggression but also repulsed it with his unprecedented courage. He gave his life while defending the frontiers of motherland but never let the enemy succeed in its nefarious designs. The proud nation awarded him with ‘Nishan-i-Haider’, the biggest gallantry award of the country. Now that more than 54 years have passed, since he embraced Shahadat, he continues to live in the hearts of each and every Pakistani. Aziz Bhatti is remembered with love and affection. Nation observes his Yaum-e-Shahadat on 12th of September in a befitting manner.This year was significant in a sense that his younger brother Sardar Ahmed Bhatti (95 years old now) presented this nation a book named ‘Aziz Bhatti Shaheed My Brother My Hero’. This book is classic and unique in a way that it unearths many ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pragmatic steps taken to implement Axle Load Control regime on NH&MP

Islamabad: Ministry of Communications has taken pragmatic steps to implement the Axle Load Control regime on Motorways & National Highways in the country. Sole objective of this move is to control travelling of overloaded vehicles which lead to fatal accidents besides damaging the national asset of road network of billions of rupees.Prior to implementation of axle load control regime, a technical committee was formed, consisting of officers from Ministry of Communications and National Highway Authority which remained in constant contacts with transport community, Members of the Chambers of Commerce and stakeholders hailing from all the provinces. This technical committee visited their offices and held detailed discussions in series of meetings and took them into confidence to facilitate implementation of Axle Load Control regime. The stakeholders assured of their full cooperation and subsequently, implementation of Axle Load Control was realized which is in progress.It is worth to ...
Post a Comment
Read more