Apostille Act, 2024

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 THE APOSTILLE ACT, 2024 
  
 
  
    CONTENTS 
1.  Short title, extent, application and commencement 
2.  Definitions 
3.  Conferment of certification 
4.  Fees 
5.  Power not to recognize certain documents in Pakistan 
6.  Overriding effect 
7.  Indemnity 
8. Power to make rules 
 
 
THE SCHEDULE NO. I 
(Sec section 2 and 3) 
 
 
THE SCHEDULE NO. II 
 
MODEL APOSTILLE CERTIFICATE 
 
 
THE SCHEDULE NO. III 
 
COMPETENT AUTHORITIES FOR CERTIFYING 
PAKISTAN PUBLIC DOCUMENT 
 
 
  
 
 

 
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THE APOSTILLE ACT, 2024 
ACT NO. XXI OF 2024 
[6th September, 2024] 
AN 
ACT 
to give effect to the Convention on abolishing the requirement of legalization for the foreign public 
documents 
  WHEREAS it is expedient to give effect to the Convention on abolishing the requirement of 
legalization for the foreign public documents and for matters connected therewith; 
 It is hereby enacted as follows:― 
 1. Short title, extent, application and commencement. ―(1) This Act shall be called the 
Apostille Act, 2024. 
 (2) It shall extend to the whole of Pakistan. 
 (3) It shall apply to foreign public documents and other public documents as specified from time 
to time in the official Gazette by the Federal Government. 
 (4) It shall come into force at once. 
 2. Definitions.―(1) In this Act, unless the context or subject otherwise requires,― 
(a)  “certification” means certification that authenticates the origin of the documents and 
not the contents; 
(b)  “competent authority ” means the division to which business of this Act stands 
allocated or any other authority declared by the Federal Gove rnment to be a 
competent authority required under the Convention; 
(c)  “Convention” or “Apostille Convention” means the Hague Convention Abolishing 
the requirement of legalization for foreign public documents,  done at the Hague on 
the 5th day of October 1961, the english text of which is set out in the First Schedule 
and includes any ratified protocols; 
(d)  ”Convention State” means a state party to the Convention other than Pakistan, but 
does not include.— 
(i)    any state party that objected to Pakistan's accession to the Convention; and 
(ii)   any state party whose accession to the Convention Pakistan objected to; and 
(e)  “model certificate” or “apostille certificate” means the model certificate set out in 
the Annexure to the Convention. 
 3. Conferment of certification.―(1) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any 
other law, the provisions of the Convention shall have the force of law in Pakistan. 
 
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 (2) The Federal Government may, by notification in the official Gazette,  amend the Schedule in 
conformity with any amendment made and adopted in the Convention, provided that such amendments 
shall be adopted and ratified by the Government of Pakistan. 
 4. Fees.―The competent authority may, by notification in the official Gazette, determine fees in 
relation to the issuance of apostille certificates from time to time. 
 5. Power not to recognize certain documents in Pakistan .―The application of those foreign 
documents shall be in -effective, which fall within the ambit of Apostille Convention but are against 
the glory of Islam and national interests, sovereignty and integrity of Pakistan. 
 6. Overriding effect.―The provisions of this Act shall have effect notwithstanding anything to 
the contrary contained in any other law, for the time being in force. 
 7. Indemnity. ―No suit, prosecution or other legal proceeding shall lie against any person for 
anything which is done or intended to be done in good faith in pursuance of this Act. 
 8. Power to make rules.―The Federal Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, 
make rules for carrying out the purposes of this Act. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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THE SCHEDULE NO.I 
(Sec sections 2 and 3) 
 Article-1 
1. The present Convention shall apply to public documents which have been executed in the 
territory of one Contracting State and which have to be produced in the territory of another 
Contracting State. 
2. For the purposes of the present Convention, the following are deemed to be public documents: 
   (a)  documents emanating from an authority or an official connected with the courts or     
tribunals of the State, including those emanating from a public prosecutor, a clerk of a 
court or a process-server(“huissier de justice”); 
(b)  administrative documents;
(c)  notarial acts; 
     (d)  official certificates which are placed on documents signed by persons in their private 
capacity, such as official certificates recording the registration of a document or the fact 
that it was in existence on a certain date and official and notarial authentications  of 
signatures. 
 3.  However, the present Convention shall not apply: 
(a)  to documents executed by diplomatic or consular agents; 
(b)  to administrative documents dealing directly with commercial or customs operations. 
Article-2 
Each Contracting State shall exempt from legalisation documents to which the present Convention 
applies and which have to be produced in its territory. For the purposes of the present Convention, 
legalisation means only the formality by which the diplomati c or consular agents of the country 
in which the document has to be produced certify the authenticity of the signature, the capacity in 
which the person signing the document has acted and, where appropriate, the identity of the seal 
or stamp which it bears. 
 Article-3 
1. The only formality that may be required in order to certify the authenticity of the signature, 
the capacity in which the person signing the document has acted and, where appropriate,  the 
identity of the seal or stamp which it bears, is the addition of the certificate described in Article 
4, issued by the competent authority of the State from which the document emanates. 
2. However, the formality mentioned in the preceding paragraph cannot be required when either 
the laws, regulations, or practice in force in the State where the document is produced or an 
agreement between or more Contracting States have abolished or simplified it, or exempt the 
document itself from legalisation. 
 
 
 
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 Article-4 
1.  The certificate referred to in the first paragraph of Article 3 shall be placed on the document 
itself or on an “allonge”; it shall be in the form of the model annexed to the present 
Convention. 
2.  It may, however, be drawn up in the official language of  the authority which issues it. The 
standard terms  ring therein may be in,  a second language also. The title “Apostille 
(Convention de La Haye du 5 October 1961)”shall be in the French language. 
 Article-5 
1. The certificate shall be issued at the request of the person who has signed the document or of 
any bearer. 
2. When properly filled in, it will certify the authenticity of the signature, the capacity in which 
the person signing the document has acted and, where appropriate,  the identity of the seal or 
stamp which the document bears. 
3. The signature, seal and stamp on, the certificate are exempt from all certification. 
 Article-6 
1. Each Contracting State shall designate by reference to their official function, the authorities 
who are competent to issue the certificate referred to in the first paragraph of Article 3. 
2. It shall give notice of such designation to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands 
at the time it deposits its instrument of ratification or of, accession or its declarat ion of 
extension. It shall also give notice of any change in, the designated authorities. 
Article-7 
1. Each of the authorities designated in accordance with Article 6 shall keep a register or card 
index in which it shall record the certificates issued, specifying: 
(a)  The number and date of the certificate, 
(b)  the name of the person sign ing the public document and the  capacity in which he has 
acted, or in the case of un-signed documents, the name of the authority which has affixed 
the seal or stamp.
2.  At the request of any interested person, the authority which has issued the certificate shall 
verify whether the particulars in the certificate correspond with those in the register or card 
index. 
Article-8 
When a treaty, con vention or agreement between two or more Contracting States contains 
provisions which subject the certification of a signature, seal or stamp to certain formalities, the 
present Convention will only override such provisions if those formalities are more-rigorous than 
the formality referred to in Articles 3 and 4. 
 
 
 
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Article-9 
Each Contracting State shall take the necessary steps to prevent the performance of legalisations 
by its diplomatic or consular agents in cases where the present Convention provides for exemption. 
Article-10 
The present Convention shall be open for signature by the States represented at the Ninth Session 
of the Hague Conference on Private International Law and Iceland,  Ireland, Liechtenstein and 
Turkey. 
It shall be ratified, and the inst ruments of ratification shall be deposited with the Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. 
Article-11 
1.  The present Convention shall enter into force on the sixtieth day after the deposit of the third 
instrument of ratification referred to in the second paragraph of Article 10. 
2.  The Convention shall enter into force for each signatory State which ratifies subsequently on 
the sixtieth day after the deposit of its instrument of ratification.
Article-12 
1.  Any State not referred to in Article 10 may accede to the present Convention after it has 
entered into force in accordance with the first paragraph of Article 11. The instrument of 
accession shall be deposited with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. 
2. Such accession shall have effect only as regards the relations between the acceding State and 
those Contracting States which have not raised an objection to its accession in the six months 
after the receipt of the notification referred to in sub -paragraph (d) of Article 15.Any such 
objection shall be notified to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. 
3. The Convention shall enter into force as between the acceding State have raised no objection 
period to its accession on the sixtieth day after the expiry of the period of six months mentioned 
in the preceding paragraph. 
Article-13 
1. Any State may, at the time of signature, ratification or accession,  declare that the present 
Convention shall extend to all the territories for the international relations of which is 
responsible, or to one or more of them. Such a declaration shall take effect on the date of entry 
into force of the Convention for the State concerned. 
2. At any time thereafter, such extensions shall be notified to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of 
the Netherlands. 
3. When the declaration of exten sion is made by a State which has signed and ratified,  the 
Convention shall enter into force for the territories concerned in accordance with Article -11. 
When the declaration of extension is made by a State which has acceded, the Convention shall 
enter into force for the territories concerned in accordance with Article 12. 
 
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Article-14 
1. The present Convention shall remain in force for five years from the date of its entry into force 
in accordance with the first paragraph of Article-11 even for States which have ratified it  or 
acceded to it subsequently.
2. If there has been no denunciation, the Convention shall be renewed tacitly every five years. 
3. Any denunciation shall be notified to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the  Netherlands at 
least six months before the end of the five year period. 
4. It may be limited to certain of the territories to which the convention applies. 
5. The denunciation will only have effect as regards the State which has notified it. The 
Convention shall remain in force for the other Contracting States. 
Article-15 
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands shall give notice to the States referred to 
in Article 10,  and to the States which have acceded in accordance with Article 12, of the 
following: 
(a)  the notification referred to in the second paragraph of Article 6; 
(b)  the signatures and ratifications referred to in Article 10; 
(c)  the date on which the present Convention enters into force in accordance with the 
first paragraph of Article 11; 
(d)  the accessions and objection referred to in Article 12 and the date on which such 
accessions take effect. 
(e)  the extensions referred to in Article 13 and the date on which they take effect; 
(f)  the denunciations referred to in the third paragraph of Article 14. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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THE SCHEDULE NO. II 
 
MODEL APOSTILLE CERTIFICATE 
 
APOSTILLE 
(Convention deLa Haye du 5 October 1961) 
 Country: 
 Pays: 
 This public document 
 Le presentacte public 
has been signed by 
a etesigne par 
acting in the capacity of 
agissant en qualite de 
bears the seal/stamp of 
estrevetu du sceau/timbre de 
Certified 
Atteste 
at 
a 
 the 
 le 
By 
par 
No 
Sous no 
Seal/stamp: 
Sceau/timbre: 
                   Signature: 
                   Signature: 
 
This Apostille only certifies the authenticity of the signature and the capacity of the person who 
has signed the public document, and, where appropria te, the identity of the seal or stamp which 
the public document bears.  
This Apostille does not certify the content of the document for which it was issued. 
[This Apostille is not valid for use anywhere within [insert the name of the State of issuance, incl. 
where possible and relevant, the territories to which the Appostille C onvention has been 
extended].] 
[To verify the issuance of this Aosittle, see[insert the URL of the e-Register]] 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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THE SCHEDULE NO.III 
 
COMPETENT AUTHORITIES FOR CERTIFYING 
 
PAKISTAN PUBLIC DOCUMENT 
 
Authority  Documents that authority may certify 
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and any other   
authority approved by the Federal 
Government 
Public documents shall be subject to the 
satisfaction of the Competent authority 
through administrative instructions issued 
from time to time 
 
 
___________ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
RGN Date: 21-10-2024