Waqar Zaka Initiates Legal Action Against PUBG Ban

While numbers of COVID-19 positive patients continue to increase, despite the lock-down and social distancing rules, the Pakistani government feels like it has more serious matters to attend to. The biggest crisis the country is currently facing is the video game Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds or PUBG.

Recently, the government suspended the popular online game, thus making YouTuber Waqar Zaka, of all people, file a petition in Sindh High Court for lifting the ban.

On Wednesday, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) suspended the multiplayer online game after receiving ‘complaints from different segments of society’. In simple words, parents are unhappy with their children playing video games.

“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,” stated by a government representative.

Following the suspension, Waqar Zaka took to social media to express his outrage as well as ‘expose’ some shady conspiracy theories behind the ban. According to the YouTuber, the ban on PUBG is to prevent Pakistani youth from excelling in e-sports.

“These are the same people who don’t want our children to become famous around the world, who don’t want our country to generate revenue online, who want to send out a message to the e-sports providers around the world to prevent them from setting up their business here – reason why YouTube never did. These people will not allow us to evolve, a digital revolution needs to be brought,” said Waqar Zaka.

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He also stated that children are still being taught about computer technology in school from textbooks that have become outdated since the 2000s. Not only that, he believes that policymakers are the same people who prevent sites like Amazon and PayPal to come into Pakistan as it would threaten their ‘business’. He also expressed his frustration about not earning revenue through Facebook as its still not legal here.

Coming back to the ban of PUBG, the authority’s argument behind their decision is mainly because of several suicides due to the game’s addictive and immersive nature. In response, Waqar Zaka said what we all were thinking.

“If you want to ban PUBG because of three suicides, then you might as well ban educational institutes –several suicide every day because of the pressure in schools and universities.”

While some of his theories may be far-fetched and sound ridiculous at first, but the man made some fair points. Parents’ frustrations with their children’s gaming addiction, or spending too much time on their phone and computer, is an age-old issue. We live in a time where people are actually earning more from games and e-commerce.

Look to Arslan Ash as an example, who now earns more than a government employee. It is the parent’s job to monitor what games their children are playing and how to manage their addictive behavior.

What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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