Pakistani Reality Show Contestant Drowns During Challenge

A contestant on a Pakistani reality TV show drowned while performing a challenge for the programme, a spokeswoman for the show’s sponsor said on Sunday.

Saad Khan, 32, was swimming across a lake while wearing a 15lb (7kg) backpack when he called out for help and then disappeared underwater, according to Fareshte Aslam, the information officer for Unilever Pakistan, the as-yet unnamed show’s sponsor. Horrified co-contestants and crew rushed to try to save him but could not find him in the murky waters of the lake in the Thai capital of Bangkok, where the show was being filmed. Divers later recovered the body of Mr Khan, said Ms Aslam.

The death came during filming of the show’s tenth episode on August 19 but it was not publicized until Mr Khan’s body was returned home to the southern Pakistani city of Karachi.

Thai police were investigating to determine whether the death was an accident or caused by negligence, Bangkok’s Kom Chad Luek newspaper reported.

Unilever Pakistan accepts no liability for Khan’s death, Ms Aslam said, but she added that the company is in discussions to provide for Mr Khan’s wife and four children "out of rightness." A close friend of Mr Khan’s, Babar Jumani, said by telephone that the family was not ready to talk to the media, and he declined to comment further.

Mr Khan had already been eliminated in the show’s previous rounds but had returned for a special challenge to earn a spot in the finals.

Plans to air the reality show — intended as a promotional tie for Unilever’s Clear shampoo — were on hold. Ms Aslam said that Unilever Pakistan, a division of the multinational soap and cosmetics maker, was not involved in the production of the show, which was handled by a director and crew from the Indian entertainment capital of Mumbai.

Reality television shows often subject contenders to harsh physical challenges.

In May a contestant on the Bulgarian version of Survivor died of a heart attack while filming on an island in the Philippines Noncho Vodenicharov, 53, collapsed after finishing an unspecified activity for the contest, Philippine police said.