DIPLOMATIC PASSPORTS AND OTHER TRAVEL DOCUMENTS
45. Diplomatic Passports
Issuance of Diplomatic Passports is the responsibility of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Machine Readable Diplomatic Passports shall be processed and Passports issued by Directorate General of Immigration & Passports (Headquarters), Islamabad based on authorization issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Following are the policy guidelines on the subject:-.
(A) The class of persons entitled for diplomatic passports.
Grant of diplomatic passports shall strictly be confined to the following persons:-
1. The President of Pakistan
2. The Prime Minister of Pakistan
3. The Chairman of Senate
4. The Speaker of the National Assembly
5. The Chief Justice of Pakistan
6. The Governors of Provinces
7. The Chief Ministers of Provinces
8. The Ministers (including Ministers of State of the Federal Government)
9. The Attorney General of Pakistan
10. i. Ex-Presidents and Ex-Prime Ministers. ii. Spouse and Dependent children of Ex-Prime Ministers.
11. Ex-Chairman of Senate and Ex-Speaker of National Assembly
12. Special Assistants to the Prime Ministers
13. The Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
14. All functionaries of the Federal Government with the status of Minister/ Minister of State
15. (a) Officers of grade 17 and above of Pakistan Foreign Service for the duration of their membership of the PFS. (b) All other Officers of grade 17 and above, including officers of Armed Forces having equivalent ranks sent abroad on diplomatic assignments and having diplomatic status for the duration of their posting or other short term assignments abroad
16. Pakistan nationals holding following offices in International Organisations: (i) President of the UN General Assembly (ii) President of the specialised agencies of the UN such as WHO, ILO, FAO, etc (iii) Executive heads of the Secretariat of such autonomous and subsidiary organisations of the General Assembly as have acquired eminence like WTO, UNIDO etc (iv) Directors representing Pakistan in the IBRD, IMF and the Asian Development Bank (v) President & Vice Presidents of the World Bank and Managing Director & Directors of IMF. (vi) Officers holding the rank of Assistant Secretary General and above in the UN secretariat and its specialised agencies (vii) Secretary General of the ECO (viii) Secretary General of the OIC Secretariat (ix) Executive Director of the Islamic Development Bank
17. Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and Chiefs of Army, Naval and Air Staff They will hold diplomatic passports as long as they hold the offices mentioned above. If they cease to hold such offices they may be required to surrender within 30-days their diplomatic passports and of spouse(s), (if they hold such passports) and may be given gratis ordinary passports valid for five years (one term only). The surrendered passports will be cancelled by the Additional Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, personally. The Prime Minister can authorise issuance of diplomatic passports in special cases.
(B) Children of Diplomatic Passport Holders Children under 15 years of the persons mentioned in (A) above may be included in their passports. If they require separate passports, they will not be given diplomatic passports. They will, however, be entitled for official/gratis passports provided they are covered under Para 9 of Passport & Visa Manual.
(C) Spouses of Diplomatic Passport Holders The spouse of person holding diplomatic passport is entitled to diplomatic passport. He / She will hold separate diplomatic passport but only so long as his / her spouse retains the prescribed office. Spouse may also be given gratis ordinary passport when his / her diplomatic passport is surrendered. The alien wife of a Pakistani diplomat should be accorded the same treatment as the alien wife of any other Pakistani. This means that if the nationality law does not allow her to secure a passport of the country to which she belonged, she should be allowed to obtain a diplomatic passport of restricted validity (not exceeding one year at a time) provided she gives a clear understanding that she will acquire Pakistan citizenship in Pakistan after obtaining a certificate of domicile and taking an oath of allegiance. If, however, she is able to secure a passport of her own country she shall retain that passport until she obtains a certificate of domicile under section 17 of the Pakistan Citizenship Act, 1951 which will entitle her to a Pakistani diplomatic passport.
