What Actually Improved
According to Gulf News, Pakistan’s passport moved from 100th in 2025 to 98th in 2026, not from 126th. The improvement stems from incremental additions to visa-free, visa-on-arrival, or eTA access, bringing the total to roughly 31 destinations. These are primarily small states across Africa, the Caribbean, and Oceania, with limited economic pull but legitimate diplomatic value.
Dawn corroborates the two-place rise and emphasizes that the gain reflects procedural normalization, not a policy breakthrough.
This is not cosmetic. Henley’s methodology is conservative. Any upward movement requires formal recognition by destination states, cleaner documentation standards, and fewer red flags in international mobility systems.
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