Bangkok – A contestant on a Pakistani reality TV show has drowned during a challenge, the show’s sponsor has confirmed. 32-year old Saad Khan was swimming across a lake while wearing a 7kg backpack when he called out for help and then disappeared underwater, said Fareshte Aslam, information officer for Unilever Pakistan, sponsoring the show to promote its Clear shampoo brand. Co-contestants and crew rushed to try to save him but could not find him in the Bangkok lake where the show was being filmed. Khan’s death came during filming of the show’s tenth episode on August 19, but was not publicized until his body was returned home to the southern Pakistani city of Karachi. Bangkok’s Kom Chad Luek newspaper reported that Thai police were investigating to determine whether the death was an accident or caused by negligence. Aslam said that Unilever Pakistan accepts no liability for Khan’s death, but added that the company is in discussion to provide for Khan’s wife and four children “out of rightness”. The sponsor was not directly involved in the production of the show, which was being handled by a director and crew from Mumbai. Plans to air the reality show remain on hold. In May, a contestant on the Bulgarian version of Survivor died of a heart attack while filming on an island in the Philippines.