BG Staff
The strength of a country’s passport is decided by the number of visa-free as well as visa on arrival countries for the holders. The passport ratting is done regularly by the international rating agencies and this time, Henley Passport Index 2019 has ranked Pakistani passport on the 102 position from the previous 104th spot.
This means that Pakistani citizens are going to have visa-free or a visa on arrival access to 33 countries around the world. The Henley passport Index is based on the information by the International Air Transport Association which is known to keep the World’s largest and database of the travel information. The update is made after extensive and ongoing research by the Henley & partners Research Department.
As reported in Dawn, the rankings have updated in real times and when visa policy changes in to effect. However the upgrade to two spots makes the Pakistani passport only better than four other countries which are Somalia, Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Also, the US and UK passports have slipped down at a joint sixth place allowing visa-free access to 185 countries. Sri Lanka is lying on the 95th spot, India and on the 79th spot alongside Benin, Morocco, Mongolia, Armenia, and Bangladesh on the joint 97th spot with visa-free access or visa on arrival to 41 states. China, on the other hand, is still climbing up the list and is on the 69th spot with visa-free access to 74 countries.
For the second year running, Japan’s passport has grabbed the top spot on the index and offers visa-free access to around 190 destinations. The second spot is taken by Singapore along with Korea which has moved up to 3rd position and allows visa-free access to 189 countries.
Featured image via Khaleej Times
