The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) in Islamabad, in collaboration with its liaison offices in Karachi and Lahore, has introduced a new service to assist applicants seeking apostille attestation. This initiative, in partnership with several courier companies, aims to simplify the document attestation process for citizens.
Under this new arrangement, designated courier companies will collect documents from applicants, which will then be attested by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The authorized courier companies include TCS, M&P, Gerry’s, Leopard, and ECS, all of which are operational in Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi.
According to a statement from the Foreign Office, these courier companies are permitted to accept all types of documents for apostille attestation, except for Power of Attorney documents.
This development follows Pakistan’s accession to the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents (Apostille Convention) of 1961, earlier in 2023. The Foreign Office explained that this convention simplifies the authentication process for public documents to a single formality: the issuance of an authentication certificate known as an “Apostille” by the designated authority of the country where the document was issued.
“The convention shortens the public document authentication process to a single formality which is the issuance of an authentication certificate called ‘Apostille’ by the designated authority of the country where the document was issued,” the FO statement said. “Thus, foreign public documents authenticated by Apostille can be directly presented to the authorities concerned without any other attestation requirement.”
The purpose of the convention is to eliminate the traditional requirement of legalization, which often involves a lengthy and costly process. Instead, the Apostille certificate, issued by a competent authority in the place where the document originated, serves as sufficient authentication for the document’s international use.
This new apostille attestation service by MoFA is expected to significantly ease the process for Pakistani citizens needing to authenticate documents for use abroad, ensuring a quicker, more efficient, and cost-effective solution.
