Pakistan accedes to Apostille Convention on legalisation of public documents

Pakistan is inching closer to becoming a member of the Apostille Convention, Head of Prime Minister's Strategic Reforms, Salman Sufi, said on Thursday.

In this regard, the instrument of accession to the Apostille Convention, drafted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) at the request of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, has been approved by President Arif Alvi, he said.

He noted that the 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.

Pakistan’s membership with the Apostille Convention would mean that the documents originating from the country that are attested according to the requirements of this treaty will be accepted in the 122 countries that are its current members.

Similarly, the documents originating from other member countries would be acceptable in Pakistan.

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 legalisation is confusing, time-consuming, cumbersome, and costly for most people and becoming a formal member of the Apostille Convention will facilitate millions of overseas Pakistanis.

The “Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents” (HCCH 1961 Apostille Convention) signed on October 5, 1961, facilitates the use of public documents abroad.

The process aims to abolish the traditional requirement of legalization of documents, 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.

The electronic Apostille Programme (e-APP) was launched in 2006 to support the electronic issuance and verification of Apostilles around the world.

The Convention has over 120 contracting parties and has become one of the most widely applied multilateral treaties in the area of legal cooperation, with several million Apostilles issued each year.