MoFA’s New Online Attestation Service Doesn’t Work Properly

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs' (MoFA) new digital attestation system, launched on October 12, 2026, at its Islamabad headquarters and liaison offices in key Pakistani cities, has been met with widespread user complaints. Despite being advertised as an online portal allowing citizens to submit documents for general attestation and apostille, and receive an e-Certificate via email without visiting a MoFA office, the system is failing to function as intended.

Users report being unable to select their destination country from the available list, even though the country appears on the portal's homepage. This has left users confused and forced them to visit MoFA offices in person, which is precisely what the new system was designed to circumvent. Furthermore, the portal currently lists 114 destinations, although the Hague Apostille Convention, to which 130 countries are parties, includes 130 contracting states.

Major destinations such as Germany, Austria, and the UAE, which are parties to the convention and should be available for attestation, are conspicuously absent from the portal's list. This absence is due to formal objections raised by these countries to Pakistan's accession to the Hague Apostille Convention. The portal's list is also not in alphabetical order, with certain countries added at the end despite being alphabetically prior.

Additionally, there is no clear guidance on whether family members can verify documents through the portal, adding to the overall confusion and frustration experienced by users.