Why am I getting the Playwright Test did not expect ${title} to be called here when I try to execute a test from the testRunner.ts file?

Question

I have .spec.ts test files in the tests folder and i have the testRunner.ts file in the parent directory. I hav built the project using tsc and configured to store the generated js files in a dist folder. After the build i have executed the testRunner.js and i get this error. Error: Playwright Test did not expect test() to be called here.

I have checked the following.

• You are calling test() in a configuration file - No
• Several playwright/test versions installed - No
• calling test() in a file that is imported by the configuration file - No

Im new to typescript and playwright but Im not sure what else i can do here. This is my testRunner.ts file

import { Command } from "commander";
const fs = require('fs'); // no default export in node.js

const executeTests = new Command();
executeTests 
    .requiredOption('-c, --client <clientName', 'Specify the client name. Eg. -c nbc OR --client nbc')
    .parse(process.argv) // returns an array containing the command line args (client name)

const options = executeTests.opts();
const clientName = options.client.toLowerCase();
const clientTestDataFile = '../clientTestData/testdata_'+clientName+'.json';

if (!fs.existsSync(clientTestDataFile)) {
    console.error('Error: Test data file not found in the test data folder for the client '+clientName+'.');
    process.exit(1);
} else {
    runTests();
   // runTests();
}
const clientTestData = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(clientTestDataFile, 'utf-8'));

async function runTests() {
    console.log('test1');
    const { runTest1 } = await import('./tests/tes.spec');
    console.log('test2');
    await runTest1();
   // runTest1();
    //runTest2();
}

tsconfig.json file

{
    "compilerOptions": {
      "target": "ES5",
      "module": "CommonJS",
      "sourceMap": true,
      "outDir": "dist",
    }
  }

tes.spec.ts

import { expect, test} from "@playwright/test"
//import casualportal_home from "../page/casualportal_home";
//import { create } from "domain";
//import casualportal_cart from "../page/casualportal_cart";
//const testdata= JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(require("../testdata.json")))

export function runTest1() {
    test('Validate if the "Book" button works', async ({ page , baseURL }) => {
        console.log('test() called')
    });
};