Pakistan has banned PUBG temporarily. The popular online game was blocked by PTA citing a court order. Lahore High Court had order temporary suspension of the game after it received several ‘complaints’ from ‘sectors of society’.
This comes as a shock news to thousands of PUBG users in Pakistan. The game is very popular in Pakistan, mostly among the Gen Z and millennials. The lockdown has a part in it too. Since colleges and offices are closed, there is not much to do for youth. So they find an escape in games like PUBG.
Not any longer though! Now while trying to play the game, they would see this error message:
“Network error, login failed. Please check your network settings.” Here is screenshot of the error:
In case you were wondering that this was a network error, this is not! Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has announced this decision through an official press release.
An Addictive Game Banned for being Addictive
The press release reads “PTA temporarily suspends PUBG Game“.
It also explains the hilarious reason why the game was banned. PUBG, an addictive online game, is banned in Pakistan because of being addictive. And if it wasn’t funny enough, the press release further states that the ‘game poses serious negative impact on physical and psychological health of Children‘. Yes, Children!
So all you little children out there, you can no longer play PUBG.
But there is other side of the picture as well.
3 Suicides Related to PUBG Addiction
There have been as many as 3 suicides reported in Pakistan owing to PUBG addiction.
On June 20, a 20 year old committed suicide because his parents stopped him from playing PUBG.
There were news of a 30 year old committing suicide in his flat in Lahore. Apparently because of PUBG addiction.
None of them are children though!
Grumpy parents, send flowers to PTA
It does not stop there. PTA has also created an email address for grumpy parents where they can email PTA to tell them how awesome this decision is. So.. grab your keyboards and email your messages of appreciation to consultation-pubg@pta.gov.pk.
