Documentation for foreign travel being simplified.

ISLAMABAD -- The government has taken a significant step to provide relief to overseas Pakistanis and those intend to go abroad for employment, education and other purposes as the lengthy procedure of authentication of documents required outside the country is being made swift and easy.

Under the new mechanism, special centres and notaries are being established in all major cities of the country for quick authentication of documents.

'The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is officiating notaries across Pakistan for enabling authentication, legalisation and attestation of documents. The process shall be completed in six months,' Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Strategic Initiatives Salman Sufi told Dawn on Thursday.

The instrument of accession to Apostille Convention, drafted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law, has been approved by President Dr Arif Alvi and will take effect in six months.

The accession, he said, would facilitate millions of overseas Pakistanis. 'As of December 2019, more than 11 million Pakistanis moved abroad to around 50 countries for the sake of employment. Pakistan is one of the largest labour-exporting countries in the region. All documents of these overseas Pakistanis, be it birth certificates, marriage...

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