Good news for overseas Pakistanis: Islamabad accedes to Apostille Convention on legalisation of public documents.

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan is taking steps to become a member of the Apostille Convention. In this respect and at the request of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the instrument of accession to the Apostille Convention, drafted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH), has been approved by President Arif Alvi, Head of Prime Minister's Strategic Reforms, Salman Sufi, told media on Thursday. Now all that is needed is a formal approval from Hague for the process to kick in.

Sufi says changes to the attestation process are likely to take effect in about six months time and that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is officiating notaries across Pakistan for enabling authentication, legalisation and attestation of documents with respect to this mechanism.

Once Pakistan formally becomes a member of the Apostille Convention, documents originating from the country that are attested in line with the requirements of this treaty will be accepted in the 122 countries that are its current members.

Same would be the case for documents originating in these 122 countries. If duly attested as per the Apostille Convention guidelines by the country of origin, these documents will be accepted in Pakistan without any further authentication requirements.

The existing process of attestation and...