*LAHORE: *At least five students were allegedly detained by Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and former minister of Railways Khawaja SaadRafique in a bid to avoid answering their questions regarding the ghost ofabsolute water scarcity that haunts the country and provision of cleandrinking water.

Earlier this month, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), as well asthe Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), had alertedthat Pakistan would run out of water by the year 2025 as the country waswasting around 13 million cusec water into the sea.

On Tuesday, five student activists, who had gone to the former minister’scorner meeting held in the Chungi Amar Sadhu locality of the city, wereallegedly harassed by Saad Rafique’s “goons” after they expressed concernover the looming water crisis and supply of contaminated water to thepeople.

As per the details, Haider Ali Butt, affiliated with the Haqooqe KhalqMovement (HKM) – an organisation addressing Pakistan’s hollow democracy andmaking efforts to promote interaction between voters and theirrepresentatives – asked the PML-N leader to outline his party’s plan toaddress the water crisis in Pakistan and the absence of clean drinkingwater in his constituency.

Instead of answering the well-meaning question of the student, Saad Rafiqueordered the attendees of the gathering to shut off their mobile phones andstop recording what witnesses said was the senior politician’s“humiliation”. A video, making rounds on the social media, shows theex-minister then asking his supporters to “take the students away and getthem clean drinking water”.

According to the victims’ accounts, following the dialogue, Saad’ssupporters manhandled them, locked them in a room for more than half anhour and threatened to beat them up.

Haider told that he and around 10 of his fellow volunteers had gone toattend the corner meeting being voters of Saad Rafique. “We distributedpamphlets among the people to raise awareness so that the meeting ratherthan being a stage-to-crowd contact is an actual democratic and two-wayinteraction,” he said, claiming that it wasn’t later when a couple ofpolice personnel made the female volunteers leave the venue.

“We did not protest when the police escorted our female colleagues out ofthe gathering, but when our genuine concerns were responded to withhostility… it was just too much,” said Haider.