Pakistan’s Islamabad High Court will soon rule on whether the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority’s (PTA) ban on the popular mobile game ‘PUBG’ is appropriate. The PTA has opposed the written petition filed by PUBG in the court. Justie Farooqi, who is hearing the case, ask the PTA in court, “Under what law did you impose this ban?” Now, Pakistan is preparing to ban PUBG.
Meanwhile, publishers have voiced their opposition to the government’s decision. Discerning and supporters of the game have also warned of protests in the Punjab-Sindh region.
Pressure on the Imran Khan’s government to ban PUBG increased when news of some suicides broke prominently across the country. The reason for their suicides has debated for days on television channels.
Why PUBG ban in Pakistan?
The PTA’s lawyer said in his argument that this has started a new debate in Pakistan. He said, “Apart from harming the mental and physical health of children and youth, there are un-Islamic things in the game of PUBG.” According to sources, such allegations could be leveled at TikTok in Pakistan as there is a growing demand for a ban.
The BBC’s Shumaila Jaffrey in Islamabad says: “The case started in Lahore about two weeks ago when two young men committed suicide. According to the police officer, he committed suicide after his parents did not allow him to play in the PUBG. Police later demanded that PTA ban the game. The PTA has argued in the Islamabad High Court that children are getting worse because of the game. They argue that this is a waste of their time.
There is now a debate on social media. When such a case comes out in Pakistan, it is directly banned rather than resolved. The hashtags #UnBanPUBGPakistan and #PUBGKaJawabDou are trending on Facebook and Twitter. Many people are of the opinion that the government is pursuing a policy of getting rid of the problem rather than solving it.
This is not the first time such a video game has banned in Pakistan. Earlier, games such as Call of Duty and Medal of Honor had banned in 2013.
The debate, which began with a ban on PUBG in Pakistan, is slowly taking on a political dimension. According to observers of the country’s politics, some of the decisions of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which came to power with the ‘overwhelming support of the youth’, are against the youth. That’s why the question arises – how much will the ban on popular pubs affect the fan base of the youth?