Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah announced the launch of a mobile application (app) for making online payments for passports, released by the Directorate-General of Immigration and Passports (DGIP)

The app will help to put a stop to “long queues and cumbersome trips to the banks,” Sanaullah said in a tweet. This move will make paying passport fees much easier for citizens.

The Passport Fee Asaan app will help users calculate and pay their passport fees using a simple interface.

The app also generates payment challan which can be paid via ATM, internet banking or 1-link member bank branches.

Users can also launch complaints and inquire about the status of payments with the app, which is available on both iOS and Android. This is a very convenient service.

Passport Ranking

It is interesting to note that the Henley Passport Index 2022 ranked Pakistan among the four worst passports in the world on July 19. The green passport can only be used to access 32 countries without a visa.

Pakistan maintained the ranking from last year, only being higher than Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, which only have visa-free access to 27, 30 and 29 countries respectively.

The passport index ranks countries according to how many destinations their citizens can access without a visa.

The Henley & Partners research department used data from the International Air Transport Association to form the list.

Japan scored the highest on the list, with visa-free travel to 193 destinations for its citizens. Singapore and South Korea were second and third with access to 192 countries.