How did you get a Pakistani passport?

 

The age of the modern passport is only 100 years. When the problem of migration and resettlement of millions of people affected by the war was faced as a result of the First World War, in a special session of the League of Nations in 1920, the member countries dealt with this problem.  Various proposals related to corridor permits have been put forward to deal with.

 It was decided that a document should be introduced at the state level which would be mutually recognized by all the member countries of the League. This travel document should contain the photograph and basic information of the citizen and should contain enough pages to stamp or stamp for the purpose of record of arrival and departure.  There should be room for entering written notes.

 Thus, the United States became the first country to adopt a modern passport under the Immigration Act of 1924.  One of the reasons for this initiative was that most of the refugees used to go to America due to any crisis or in search of a better life.

 There was no idea about these people, how many are criminals and how many are law-abiding. So not only the United States imposed a condition for its citizens but also for foreigners to have a document issued by their state.  Anyone showing this document would be stopped on arrival at any port or border crossing designated for immigration, including New York and San Francisco.  Gradually, visas started being issued.

 For thousands of years before that, humans were accustomed to free movement between borders.  There was no concept of going abroad for tourism and entertainment.  The distances were long and unknown.  Nations had mostly hearsay information about each other.  Businessmen, government officials, people who were persecuted or fugitives used to come from one country to another country. Their information would be registered with the relevant Kotwal or Nazim and thus they would get the right to stay and shelter.

 Passports are actually a documentary product of the 20th century suspicion of man and international misogyny. But traveling on a passport was very easy until a few decades ago. There was not so much documentary evidence to be provided for a visa. More reliance was placed on language.  And there was no need to get a visa in advance.

 Until the 1965 war, a Pakistani passport could travel without prior visa to every country except the Soviet Union and the communist states of Eastern Europe, including India.  The conditions for obtaining a visa were imposed and the conditions became stricter over time.

 In 1970, the United States abolished the on-arrival visa on Pakistani passports and imposed the condition of obtaining a visa in advance.

 In the early 1900s, the government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto made it very easy for the common man to obtain a passport. Due to this, a large number of ordinary Pakistanis were able to travel to the Gulf countries for employment.  Previously, the international passport was not issued easily to the common citizen. Only the Hajj passport was issued to him easily.

 In 1974, an additional stamp began to be affixed to Pakistani passports, indicating that this document is valid for travel to every country except Israel and South Africa.  (Today, Israel is the only country where Pakistani passports are not allowed to visit).

 During the Afghan civil war in 1989, cooperation between Western countries and the Zia government increased on the one hand, and on the other hand, in 1983, Britain and other European countries abolished the facility of visa on arrival for traveling on Pakistani passports, and then gradually.  Gradually, this facility was also withdrawn by the brother Gulf countries.  After 9/11, this disrespect increased.  As the perception of Pakistani citizens being involved in international terrorism or human trafficking and drug transit took root, the influence of Pakistani passports also started to shrink.

 The passport that forty years ago was equal to the passport of any developed country. Today, it is possible to travel to only thirty-two countries out of one hundred and ninety-nine countries without a prior visa.  While Bangladesh passport can travel to 41 countries and Indian passport can travel to 61 countries without advance visa.

 Only Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan are below Pakistan. Their citizens can enter thirty, twenty-nine and twenty-seven countries respectively without prior visa.  withdrew the facility and now we are fourth from the bottom. And this ranking has been maintained continuously since more or less 2016.

 Pakistani passport holders can currently apply online for advance e-visa for twenty-eight countries (Antigua and Barbados, Suriname, Bolivia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, South Tomp and Principe, Ethiopia, Congo, DRC, Ivory Coast,  Guinea, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Benin, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Lesotho, Malawi, Uganda, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Cambodia, UAE, Bahrain).

 Twenty countries have e-Visa as well as Visa on Arrival facility (Benin, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Uganda, Palau, Brunei, Burundi, Cape Verde, Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Maldives, Mauritania, Nepal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia).  , Togo, Tuvalu, Bolivia).

 While Pakistanis can enter visa-free in ten countries (Qatar, Belarus, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Micronesia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, Vinoto).

 How many Pakistanis want to go to the other nine places for tourism, employment or education in the ten visa-free countries mentioned above, except Qatar?

 While in Pakistan, residents of sixty-five countries can benefit from the facility of visa on arrival.  And we are unable to arrange visa-on-arrival facility for our citizens even from these sixty-five countries.