Thousands of Pakistanis wait in queues, pay high fees and shuttle between government offices just to get a single document attested. On Tuesday, a Senate committee decided that the running around should end. The Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs has directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and NADRA to build one integrated e-attestation system for Pakistan — a single digital process in which documents are checked with a QR code instead of travelling from one desk to another.
The committee’s concern was not only that attestation is slow. According to reports of the meeting, members complained that applicants still face long delays and heavy charges even after the services were supposed to go digital. The committee, chaired by Senator Agha Shahzaib Durrani, wants the three institutions to return with a comprehensive plan — and until that plan becomes real, the present split between a digital route, a manual route and a pending apostille integration will stay in place.
One system, one QR code
The heart of the committee’s direction is simple: bring the three bodies that touch attestation into one coordinated process. Applicants heading abroad for study, jobs and visas currently move separately between the Higher Education Commission, the Foreign Office and NADRA. An integrated e-attestation system would replace that shuffling with a single pipeline, so the same application would not have to start over at every counter.
The committee specifically asked for QR-code-based verification of official documents — a scan that checks a document against an official record instead of relying on a manual examination of the paper — and for unnecessary human interaction to be cut out. Fewer human touchpoints mean fewer points at which a file can stall, and fewer chances for malpractice to creep in. HEC, NADRA and the Foreign Office must present the comprehensive plan at the next committee meeting, where members will examine how the three institutions actually intend to work together in practice. The order fits into the government’s broader push to build digital infrastructure at home, including the parallel push to build e-passport security chips at home through local institutions.
Digitised but still delayed
The frustration in the committee room was sharpest because so much of the system is already digital. The Foreign Office has digitised general document attestation — about 65 per cent of its total attestation workload — by integrating its system with the HEC database. Yet applicants still complain of delays and high charges, which is exactly what the committee questioned: if the service is digital, why does it still behave like a paper system?
Part of the answer is that a traditional manual facility has been retained alongside the digital route. Digitisation exists in parallel with the old counters rather than replacing them, so applicants keep queuing out of habit even when an online route exists. To close that gap, the committee directed the ministry to launch an awareness campaign informing citizens that digitised attestation services exist and can be used — because a digital service that citizens do not know about stays underused no matter how well it is built.
The apostille gap: NADRA’s pending role
The remaining 35 per cent of the Foreign Office’s attestation workload is apostille attestation — the internationally recognised form of attestation, accepted in 112 countries under the Hague Convention of 1961. This is the portion that has not yet been brought into the digitised framework in the same way as general document attestation, a point raised in the committee’s earlier briefing on apostille attestation as well.
The ministry is now planning to integrate its system with NADRA for apostille attestation, which is intended to make the process faster, more secure and efficient. Until that integration is complete, Pakistan’s attestation system stays divided three ways: a digitised general route for most documents, a retained manual facility for those who still walk in, and an apostille route that is still waiting on NADRA integration.
What changes for applicants
If the integrated e-attestation system works as directed, an applicant’s journey would look very different: one online process spanning HEC, NADRA and the Foreign Office, documents verified by QR code against official records, and fewer counters, fewer visits and fewer charges. For overseas Pakistanis — students, workers and families — that would mean less time lost to queues and less money spent on middlemen.
For now, applicants must still use the existing routes: HEC’s online portal for degrees, the Foreign Office’s digital or manual route for general documents, and existing NADRA document processes such as the Family Registration Certificate through their own online system. The real test of the committee’s direction comes at the next meeting, when HEC, NADRA and the Foreign Office must show a plan that turns a direction into a working service — and the committee will judge it on the plan the three institutions bring forward.
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