Pakistan’s passport ranking has improved on the Henley Passport Index 2026, rising from 103 in 2025 to 98, according to figures released on Thursday.
In the latest rankings, Pakistan’s passport ties with Yemen at 98th place, higher than the 99th place for Iraq; 100th for Syria, and 101st for Afghanistan. According to the Index, Pakistan’s passport allows visa-free access to 31 countries, including visa-on-arrival. Pakistani nationals, it said, had visa-free access to Barbados, Cook Islands, Dominica, Haiti, Micronesia, Montserrat, Rwanda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Vanuatu. They also have visa-on-arrival facilities at Burundi, Cambodia, Cape Verde Islands, Comoro Islands, Djibouti, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Maldives, Mozambique, Nepal, Niue, Palau Islands, Qatar, Samoa, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Timor-Leste, and Tuvalu.
Pakistanis can also avail electronic travel authorization for Kenya, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka.
In a posting on X, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi declared the ranking improvement a “strong achievement.” He said the “momentum will continue.” Last year in October, the Pakistani passport ranked the fourth worst for the fifth straight year, with a ranking of 103. In 2024 and 2024, it ranked 100, while it was at 109 in 2022.
In this year’s ranking, Singapore placed the highest, with visa-free access to 192 countries, followed closely by Japan and South Korea with 188. Denmark, Luxembourg, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland tied in third with visa-free access to 186 countries.