Mukhtarnama / power of attorney from the UAE for Pakistan
A Mukhtarnama — the community term commonly used for a power of attorney — can be signed at the Pakistan mission in the UAE or presented as a UAE-issued document after the required UAE stage. The Dubai consulate publishes AED 40 for its POA service, requires the applicant in person, and lists two typed copies, identity papers, two photographs and the attorney’s CNIC copy. Abu Dhabi publishes a similar but not identical list, including three photographs, so use the checklist for the post you will actually attend. Neither post decides whether a land office, bank or court in Pakistan will accept the powers written into the document; confirm the wording with that receiving body before signing.
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When people need this
Land is the dominant reason. Selling or transferring a plot, dealing with a mutation in the revenue record, managing an inherited share among siblings, or letting somebody handle a property matter that cannot wait for a trip home. After that come bank matters, pension and family documents, and company signatures.
The UAE has one of the largest Pakistani communities anywhere, and the Pakistan mission here treats power-of-attorney work as routine. That is also why the requirements are written down in more detail than most corridors manage.
The UAE stage comes first
The Pakistan Embassy in Abu Dhabi states it directly: for documents issued outside Pakistan, attestation by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs is required before the mission will attest them. That is the same MOFA stage described in our guide to using a UAE power of attorney abroad - MOFA certifies the signatures and seals, not the contents.
This ordering matters because it is the step people most often skip. A document taken straight to the mission without the MOFA stamp is a wasted trip.
Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pakistan - Abu Dhabi attestation
Dubai and Abu Dhabi publish different checklists
At the Consulate General in Dubai, the published POA list is: the applicant in person; two copies of the typed POA; original Passport, NICOP or POC; one passport copy; one Emirates ID or residence-visa copy; two recent white-background passport photographs; and a copy of the attorney’s CNIC. A dual-national applicant must also bring the POC or NICOP card and both passports. For a deceased parent’s property POA, the consulate separately requires a copy of the succession certificate.
The Pakistan mission page for Abu Dhabi publishes a similar route but asks for an original plus one copy and three photographs. That difference is small enough to cause a failed visit and large enough that one generic “UAE checklist” would be wrong. Use the page for the post you are attending and re-check it before the appointment.
If instead the power of attorney comes from Pakistan, the Abu Dhabi mission asks for the original and a copy together with the authority-holder’s passport or NICOP copy, and states that the original must be completed in all respects and attested by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Pakistan.
| Dubai consulate | Abu Dhabi mission | |
|---|---|---|
| Attendance | Applicant in person | Executant must be present |
| POA copies | Two typed copies | Original plus one copy |
| Photographs | Two, white background | Three |
| Identity papers | Original Passport/NICOP/POC; passport and Emirates ID or visa copies | Passport, visa, Emirates ID and NICOP copies |
| Attorney identity | Copy of attorney’s CNIC | Confirm against the current mission list |
| Published POA fee | AED 40 | AED 40 |
Source: Consulate General of Pakistan, Dubai — Attestation of Documents
Two routes, and neither is automatically the right one
The mission publishes requirements for two different things, and they are not interchangeable. One is a power of attorney executed at the mission, where a consular officer is involved in the signing and your presence is mandatory. The other is a document that already exists - drafted and dealt with in the UAE - which is attested by UAE MOFA and then presented to the mission.
Which one suits you depends on the transaction and on what the person acting for you in Pakistan needs to hold. We are not going to tell you one is generally better, because the missions do not say that and it would not be true across every matter. What we can say is that both are published, and that the mission is the party to confirm which it will accept for your purpose.
Whose fee is whose
The Pakistan Consulate General in Dubai publishes AED 40 for its Power of Attorney service and says cash or credit card may be used at the counter. The Abu Dhabi mission also publishes AED 40 for powers of attorney and affidavits. Educational certificates are listed at AED 40, marriage, birth and death documents at AED 20, and UAE-issued foreign documents at AED 60.
Those are the mission’s own fees and nothing else. Keeping the stages separate matters here more than usual, because Pakistan also publishes rupee apostille fees that belong to a different process entirely.
- UAE government fee - UAE MOFA attestation, priced in a guide we have not read. We quote no figure.
- Mission fee - AED 40 for the POA service at the Dubai consulate; Abu Dhabi also publishes AED 40 for a power of attorney or affidavit.
- Pakistan-side costs after arrival - stamp paper, revenue or registration charges where they apply. Not published in anything we read.
- Our own professional fee for preparing the document is separate again, and is never bundled into any of the above.
A trap worth naming
Pakistan’s foreign ministry serves some consular pages per mission, and the same web address without the mission parameter can return a completely different fee from another post. Anyone researching this online can end up reading one mission’s schedule and believing it applies in Dubai.
Dubai now publishes its own first-party POA checklist. Use it for a Dubai appointment, and do not silently copy the Abu Dhabi photograph count into it. The fee matches today; the checklist does not.
There is a second lookalike: a .org site carrying content that matches the official pages but evidencing no authorship of its own. We rely on the ministry’s own Abu Dhabi page and name it, and we would suggest you do the same.
The apostille question, and why nobody answers it
Pakistan acceded to the Hague Apostille Convention and runs an apostille portal, with online registration mandatory from 27 July 2026 and fees quoted in rupees. Separately, Pakistan publishes mission attestation for documents crossing to and from the UAE.
What no Pakistani source we read does is reconcile the two - it does not say whether a UAE-bound document takes an apostille or a mission attestation. What we can say is narrower, and it comes from the UAE side: the UAE is not listed among the Contracting Parties, so Pakistan's Convention membership does not by itself remove the UAE-side steps. That is a statement about Convention status, not a description of what any particular Pakistani office will demand of your document. Ask the mission, and ask whoever will act on the document in Pakistan.
Language
Neither the Pakistan mission in the UAE nor UAE MOFA publishes a translation requirement for this corridor. In practice these documents are usually drafted in English, which both sides accept.
Where a Pakistani revenue office, bank or court expects Urdu, that expectation comes from the receiving body rather than from either foreign ministry, and it is worth confirming with them before the document is executed.
Where this page stops
Pakistan publishes, for powers of attorney prepared inside Pakistan for use abroad, that they must be on stamp paper with passport-size photographs of the executant. Whether an equivalent stamp-paper requirement applies to a power of attorney executed in the UAE is not stated anywhere we read, and we are not going to guess at it.
The same caution applies to what a revenue office or sub-registrar will want to see. Ask the person handling the matter in Pakistan what the document must contain before you sign it here.
Questions
Does a UAE-issued document for Pakistan need MOFA attestation first?
Yes, for a document issued in the UAE. The Pakistan mission states that attestation by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs is required for documents issued outside Pakistan before it will attest them.
Must I attend in person?
For the Dubai consulate’s POA service, yes: its checklist says the applicant must be present in person. The Abu Dhabi mission likewise states that the executant must be present. Neither publishes a remote alternative on the pages checked.
What does it cost?
The Dubai consulate publishes AED 40 for its Power of Attorney service, and Abu Dhabi publishes AED 40 for a power of attorney or affidavit. A UAE-issued document requiring the separate foreign-document route is listed at AED 60 in Dubai. UAE MOFA and Pakistan-side charges are separate.
Can I use a Pakistani apostille instead?
We cannot tell you that it works, and we will not tell you that it does not. Pakistan issues apostilles; the UAE is not listed among the Contracting Parties, so Pakistan's membership does not by itself remove the UAE-side steps; and Pakistan's own apostille pages do not mention the UAE either way. That is a genuine gap in what is published, and the mission is the party to settle it.
How many photographs do I need?
Dubai publishes two recent passport photographs with a white background. Abu Dhabi publishes three. Use the list for the post you will attend and check it again before travelling.
Is a Mukhtarnama the same as a power of attorney?
Mukhtarnama is a commonly used name for a power of attorney in Pakistan and among Pakistani communities. The Dubai consulate labels its service “Power of Attorney (POA)”. Whatever name is used, the important part is the exact authority written into the document and whether the receiving office in Pakistan accepts it for the intended transaction.
Does the mission check what the document says?
The consular act concerns the signature and the identity of the person signing. Nothing published states that an attested power of attorney is thereby effective for a particular transaction in Pakistan - that remains for the receiving body there.
What this page does not do
- Whether a power of attorney executed in the UAE must be on stamp paper for use in Pakistan is not stated in the sources we have read. The stamp-paper rule we found applies to documents prepared inside Pakistan for use abroad.
- Pakistan runs an apostille service and separately publishes mission attestation for the UAE. No Pakistani source we read reconciles them, and we have not reconciled them for it. What we state rests on the UAE’s absence from the HCCH status table - which settles Convention status and nothing more.
- Dubai and Abu Dhabi publish different checklists. The Dubai requirements and AED 40 POA fee are quoted from the Consulate General’s own page; the Abu Dhabi comparison comes from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs mission page. Re-check the post you will attend.
- The Deedbox prepares documents. We do not carry out attestation or legalisation, do not act for you before any mission, and are not a law firm. The receiving authority in Pakistan decides whether to act on your document.
Sources last checked