The Federal Cabinet of Pakistan has officially approved the nation’s first-ever National Esports Policy, greenlighting a comprehensive legislative framework to formalise, regulate, and scale the domestic digital gaming and game development sectors.

Following the policy’s ratification, Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan, Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme (PMYP), announced that Pakistan’s inaugural Esports Federation will be formally established within the next two months to act as the central governing body for the industry.

The institutional rollout aims to cater to a massive domestic demographic, with government metrics estimating that between 50 and 60 million young citizens are actively engaged in esports across the country. To nurture this talent base, the federal strategy mandates the nationwide development of dedicated on-site esports arenas alongside specialised game development centers.

The implementation strategy follows a development plan previously drafted by Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja, which highlights integrating game technology coursework, creating job-funding initiatives, and lowering commercialisation bottlenecks to help local software teams bring their intellectual properties to major international publishers.

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Ahmad Khan stated in a LinkedIn post that the policy framework represents a targeted effort to convert localized gaming passion into viable economic and competitive success on the world stage. Khan emphasized that global champions like Tekken legend Arslan Ash serve as a clear “testament to the country’s immense potential in this field”, and noted that the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme is strategically committed to supplying grassroots players “with opportunities to compete and excel on the global stage”.

The finalised policy comes after roughly one year of formal multi-lateral consultation. The legislative push originally gained momentum during high-level diplomatic sessions in Islamabad involving the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT), the Commonwealth Secretariat, and the British Esports Federation. Government representatives emphasised that integrating competitive gaming into national infrastructure forms a core pillar of Pakistan’s broader digital transformation agenda, capitalising on a domestic population where roughly 160 million citizens are under the age of 30.

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