Pakistan in Talks With Netflix to Give Local Content 'Rightful Space'
By Sayed Abdullah | July 13, 2026
The episode had already aired on television, but on Netflix, it found a second life. Humsafar — the drama that once made entire neighbourhoods fall silent at 8 p.m. — was being watched again, this time by audiences in Toronto, London, and Dubai. The same thing happened with Zindagi Gulzar Hai and Sadqay Tumhare. Pakistani stories, told in Urdu and dressed in local textures, were travelling. But they were doing so almost by accident, through old licensing deals, not because any global streaming giant had decided to invest in them. Now the government has decided that the accidental path is not enough. Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal confirmed this week that Islamabad has opened direct talks with Netflix and other OTT platforms, pushing for what he called the "rightful space" for Pakistani content creators. The message is simple: our dramas are already being watched. It is time they were also commissioned, funded, and promoted as originals.
The era of waiting for a seat at the table is over. The government is now trying to build the table itself.
The Full Story
Ahsan Iqbal laid out the initiative in a statement on X, framing the talks as part of the broader "Uraan Pakistan" programme, which has designated the creative and cultural industry as a critical pillar of the national export strategy. He noted that Pakistani dramas and films are gaining widespread international popularity, and that platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime are vital gateways to global audiences. But then he added a sharper observation: those platforms "have unfortunately been weaponised by regional politics for too long, denying Pakistani content its rightful, due space." The reference was unmistakable. In May 2025, India directed all digital and streaming platforms operating within its borders to remove Pakistan-origin films, series, music, and podcasts, following an escalation in bilateral hostilities. The ban was comprehensive, and it cut off a massive South Asian audience from Pakistani content overnight.
Netflix does not have an explicit policy to exclude Pakistani productions. The platform's decisions are driven by commercial factors — production capacity, expected returns, audience scale, and technical delivery standards. But the regional political environment has shaped the commercial calculations. When the Indian market represents hundreds of millions of potential viewers, a platform's willingness to invest in Pakistani originals that could jeopardise its access to that market is understandably cautious. The result is that Pakistani dramas have appeared on Netflix only through licensing arrangements for completed third-party productions, never as official Netflix originals. Humsafar, Zindagi Gulzar Hai, Sadqay Tumhare — all were acquired after they had already aired on local television. None were commissioned. None were promoted as flagship global releases. The government now wants to change that dynamic, and it is using both negotiation and the threat of independence to do so.
Alongside the talks with Netflix, Iqbal revealed that the state is "actively working towards developing Pakistan's very own independent OTT platform to champion stories globally." The move is both an insurance policy and a bargaining chip. If the global platforms will not give Pakistani content the space and investment it deserves, the government intends to create a homegrown alternative. The announcement comes at a moment when Indian cinema and broadcast content are already banned on Pakistani television and inside local theatres, a policy that has been in place for years. The asymmetry is stark. Pakistani audiences are denied Indian content by their own government. Pakistani creators are denied global platforms by regional politics. In the middle are the stories themselves — dramas that are watched obsessively in both countries, shared on YouTube and messaging apps, pirated on USB drives, and loved across borders that governments have made nearly impossible to cross.
Why This Moment Matters
Pakistani television dramas are one of the country's most successful cultural exports, even if they have never been formally treated as such. For decades, they have been watched across South Asia, the Middle East, and the diaspora, building a soft power that no diplomatic campaign has matched. A single hit drama can shape perceptions of Pakistan more effectively than a dozen embassy events. The global streaming revolution was supposed to amplify that reach. Instead, it has largely bypassed Pakistan's television industry, which continues to produce content at a fraction of the budget available to Indian, Turkish, or Korean productions. The economics are punishing. A Pakistani drama that costs a few crore rupees to produce can attract viewership that rivals far more expensive international shows, but without the streaming deals that turn viewership into revenue, the industry remains trapped in a cycle of ad-supported television with limited global monetisation.
The government's intervention is significant because it recognises that the market alone will not solve this problem. Left to their own devices, global platforms will invest where the returns are largest and the political risks are smallest. Pakistan, with a relatively small domestic streaming market and a neighbour that can shut down access to a continent-sized audience with a single regulatory order, does not naturally attract the kind of investment that Netflix pours into South Korea or India. The state's willingness to negotiate on behalf of the industry — and to fund a public OTT platform if those negotiations fail — is an acknowledgment that cultural exports require the same strategic support as textiles or software. The question is whether the government can execute. Pakistan's track record on public digital infrastructure is mixed at best. But the instinct is sound. If the global platforms will not open the door, Pakistan will try to build its own.
The Pakistani Connection
I was in a friend's drawing room in Nazimabad a few weeks ago, yaar, when the conversation turned, as it always does, to the golden age of Pakistani dramas. Someone pulled up an old clip of Dhoop Kinare on their phone, and within minutes the room was arguing about whether any modern drama had matched it. The nostalgia was thick, but so was the frustration. Everyone in that room had watched Humsafar when it first aired, had later discovered it on Netflix, and had wondered why there were not more Pakistani shows on the platform. The answer, they suspected, was politics. They were right. The difference now is that someone in the government is actually saying it out loud and trying to do something about it. The move to develop a Pakistani OTT platform is a recognition that our stories have value, and that we should not have to wait for a foreign executive to decide they are worth telling.
For the writers, directors, and actors who have built Pakistan's television industry on modest budgets and immense talent, the government's engagement is a flicker of hope. A successful OTT platform, or a fairer deal with Netflix, could mean bigger budgets, better production values, and the kind of creative freedom that broadcast television, with its censorship and advertiser pressures, often limits. It could also mean jobs. Karachi and Lahore are already home to a growing community of post-production houses, visual effects artists, and sound designers who are hungry for work that reaches beyond the domestic market. If Pakistani originals begin appearing on global platforms — not as licensed reruns, but as commissioned debuts — the ripple effects through the economy will be real. Not transformative, perhaps, but real. A hit drama can sell merchandise, drive tourism to filming locations, and create a brand that lives far beyond the final episode. The government has taken the first step. The next one will be harder. But at least someone is walking.
Would you subscribe to a Pakistani OTT platform, or do you think the future lies in negotiating with the global giants? I would like to know where viewers stand.
Sayed Abdullah is the founder and editor of Prime Pakistan. Based in Karachi, he writes about culture, entertainment, and the stories that shape Pakistani lives. Read more.
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Sources
- Ahsan Iqbal's official X account — Statement on Netflix talks and the Uraan Pakistan cultural export strategy.
- Media reports — Background on India's 2025 ban on Pakistani content and existing licensing arrangements on Netflix.
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