The Government of Pakistan has formally acceded to the Hague Convention abolishing the requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (Apostille Convention) of 1961, a statement issued by the Pakistan Foreign Office said.

The convention shortens the public document authentication process to a single formality i.e. issuance of an authentication certificate called as ‘Apostille’ by the designated authority of the country where the document was issued.

Thus foreign public documents authenticated by Apostille can be directly presented to the concerned authorities without any other attestation requirement, the FO statement added.

"In line with the obligations as contracting state of the Convention, concerned authorities of Pakistan will now accept the Foreign Apostille Certificates issued by the members/contracting States of the convention from the date of entry into force i.e. 9th March 2023, without any requirement of attestation from Ministry of Foreign Affairs or Pakistan Missions abroad."

The process of issuance of ‘Apostille Certificates’ by Pakistan will also commence in few months upon completion of necessary legislation and other requirements, said the foreign office.

Other Attestation Services will continue as usual at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Camp Offices and Pakistan Missions abroad.

The new measures introduce a relief to the previous process of attestation and legalisation of foreign public documents, a process that was confusing, time-consuming, cumbersome and costly for most people and becoming a formal member of the Apostille Convention is going to facilitate millions of Pakistanis.

The purpose of the Convention is to abolish the traditional requirement of legalisation, replacing the often lengthy and costly legalisation process with the issuance of a single Apostille certificate by a Competent Authority in the place where the document originated.



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