The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has decided to impose a temporary ban on PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) in Pakistan after they received numerous complaints against the online game claiming that it was ‘waste of time’ and ‘addictive’.
PTA has received numerous complaints against PUBG wherein it is stated that the game is addictive, wastage of time and poses serious negative impact on physical and psychological health of the children. pic.twitter.com/GDJqTeuTaf
— PTA (@PTAofficialpk) July 1, 2020
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in a tweet said it got series of complaints against PUBG wherein it is stated that the “game is addictive, wastage of time and poses a serious negative impact on the physical and psychological health of children”.
In a statement, PTA said that the Lahore High court had directed them to look into the issue and decide the matter after hearing the complainants. In this regard, a hearing will be conducted on 9th of July 2020, PTA said in its statement after it banned the game temporarily.
Reportedly, the PTA has also said that they would make a decision on permanently banning the game after holding discussions with all stakeholders.
It is indeed ironical that in Pakistan, where unemployment is a norm rather than an aberration, there has been a call to ban the game on the pretext that it leads to wastage of time of the youths of the country.
Decision to temporarily ban came after youths committed suicide
The decision to temporarily ban the online game comes from the fact that at least two people in Pakistan had committed suicide recently, whose deaths have been linked to this online game.
Reportedly, a 20-year-old committed suicide in Saddar Bazaar, Lahore after his parents had stopped him from playing the online game. Three days later, another young boy ended his life suicide in Hanjarwal. The police said that they found the young man’s cell phone in the room and the PUBG app was running on it.
On Tuesday, the police had found the body of a 30-year-old man at his flat in Lahore’s Factory Area on Tuesday night. A 22-year-old youth from Quetta had also committed suicide by hanging himself after missing a task in the online game PUBG.
PUBG, developed by a South Korean company, is an online game in which players are made to battle it out against others. The multiplayer game allows players from all over the world to compete against each other or in teams. The players attack and kill each other in the game leading to scoring more points and higher rank.
