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KARACHI: Pakistan is taking initial steps toward developing its first national esports policy and has sought support from the British Esports Federation and Commonwealth Secretariat to help shape the effort, the country’s IT minister said on Tuesday.

The remarks came after a meeting between Pakistan’s Ministry of IT and Telecommunication and representatives from the British Esports Federation and Commonwealth Secretariat. The collaboration aims to guide the policy’s development and support the formation of a national esports federation.

“We have immense young talent [but] commercialization is the bottleneck,” Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja said during the meeting, according to an official statement released later. “We seek your support to help Pakistani developers reach international markets.”

While Pakistan has a growing number of young game developers, some already publishing on platforms like SEGA and Nintendo, most lack access to funding, publishing infrastructure or export pathways.

The statement said the development of a national policy is aimed at formally recognizing esports as an economic sector and unlocking its potential as a structured platform for youth-driven innovation and employment.

The policy under development includes a strategy focused on training in game-tech, youth-led funding schemes and support for bringing locally developed games to market.

Officials said the policy will be shaped using international best practices and aligned with Pakistan’s wider goals for youth engagement and digital innovation.

Pakistan considers IT a priority sector in its broader economic strategy, hoping to boost digital exports, reduce youth unemployment and build global partnerships in creative tech.

The inclusion of esports in this agenda reflects a shift toward recognizing digital entertainment as a viable economic contributor.

LAHORE: The father and the ex-husband of an alleged “honor killing” victim are among nine people arrested in eastern Pakistan in connection with the young woman’s death, police said.

Police said Sidra Bibi, 18, was killed on the orders of a local council of elders in the garrison city of Rawalpindi after she married a man of her choice.

Some of her relatives are alleged to have buried her body and flattened the land to erase evidence of a grave, police official Aftab Hussain said Monday. The victim was suffocated using a pillow placed over her face, he added.

The arrests came after authorities exhumed the body and carried out an autopsy, which confirmed she had been tortured before being killed.

The case has drawn widespread condemnation in a country where honor killings are still common.

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said 405 women were killed in 2024 in such cases, compared with 226 in 2023.

“The actual number is believed to be higher due to underreporting,” said Sadia Bukhari, a member of the commission’s council.

Honor killings, in which family members kill women for actions perceived as bringing shame to the family such as choosing their spouse, have increased in recent years.

Earlier this month, police in southwestern Balochistan province arrested 11 suspects after a video shared online appeared to show a young couple being fatally shot for marrying without their families’ approval.

Police confirmed the authenticity of the footage, saying the killings happened in the Deghari district in the province of Balochistan.

In January, police arrested a Pakistani man suspected of killing his US-born 15-year-old daughter for refusing to stop posting videos on TikTok, a platform with more than 54 million users in the country.

“These so-called honor killings reveal a deep-rooted mindset that views women as the property of men,” Bukhari said. “Most women in Pakistan face discrimination from childhood through adulthood.”