KARACHI: For the fourth straight year, the Pakistani passport has been ranked the fourth worst by the Henley Passport Index, a ranking of the world’s 199 passports according to the number of destinations their owners can access without a prior visa, Dawn.com reported.

In the latest ranking, Pakis­tan’s travel document (100th place — tied with Yemen) is only ranked higher than those of Iraq (101), Syria (102) and Afghanistan (103) — same as last year.

Pakistan and Yemen’s passports permit visa-free access to 33 states, Iraq’s allows travel to 31, Syria’s gives access to 28 destinations and Afghanistan’s travel document only affords the bearer access to 26 destinations.

“Afghanistan remains firmly entrenched as the world’s weakest passport, losing access to yet another destination over the past six months, leaving its citizens with access to only 26 countries visa-free — the lowest score ever recorded in history of the 19-year-old index,” a press release said.

The top spot yet again belonged to Singapore, as its passport provides citizens visa-free access to 195 destinations, setting a “new record score”.

Germany, Italy, Japan, France and Spain tied for 2nd place, with each passport allowing access to 192 destinations.

At 3rd place were Austria, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Nether­lands, South Korea and Sweden with access to 191 destinations.

The United Kingdom was ranked 4th alongside Belgium, Den­mark, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2024