South Asian Games likely to be postponed again
The future of much-delayed 13th South Asian Games has again been left to uncertainty as the Nepal’s Supreme Court has stayed the forthcoming country’s national Olympic Committee’s elections.
The Games are set to start from December 1 in Nepal. However, the intervention of Nepal’s Supreme Court has put on hold all the preparations that were under way for the Games.
The court, through an interim order, refrained the Olympic Committee from the planned elections till the time it decides on the matter.
“The Games have already been put off twice before the new dates were finalised in March this year. The new development is a cause of concern for the South Asian countries,” one of the federation officials, when contacted, said.
Nepal Supreme Court’s Justice Tanka Bahadur Mokton while reacting on the plea of an Executive Committee member has summoned both the parties in a week’s time to hear the petition.
“Unless and until the matters settles down amicably, chances are there that the forthcoming Games may well get a new date. According to the federations’ officials in Nepal, efforts are on to settle the matter amicably so that the Games could go ahead as planned,” the official said.
Nepal’s NOC headed by Jeeval Ram Shrestha is recognised by the IOC and OCA while the parallel body was declared illegal by the Nepal’s Supreme Court in 2010.
The Supreme Court (SC) issuing an interim order on Tuesday asked the Nepal Olympic Committee (NOC) not to conduct its election scheduled for Friday.
Responding to a writ petition filed by Kamal Bahadur Chitrakar, a member of the Olympic committee led by Rukma Shamsher, a single bench of Justice Tanka Bahadur Moktan issued the interim order.
Chitrakar had moved the apex court last Sunday challenging the authority of the committee led by incumbent President Jeevanram Shrestha claiming that the Shrestha-led committee itself is illegal.
The SC has summoned the Shrestha-led committee before the court with a clarification within 15 days and ordered not to conduct election until the next verdict.
With the court’s stay order the election of the internationally-recognized Olympic committee has now become uncertain. The Olympic committee which has been weakened by the existence of two parallel committees for the last one decade is likely to face further complications following the court order.
The SC also has set September 8 as the date for hearing and has asked both the defendants and plaintiff to present before the court for further discussion.
“After looking into the seriousness of the writ petition, it seems appropriate to hold discussion between both the parties before reaching a conclusion. Thus, the court sets September 8 as the date of hearing,” the order states.
In the writ, Chitrakar has named Shrestha-led Olympic Committee, Ministry of Youth and Sports, National Sports Council (NSC), District Administration Office Lalitpur and District Administration Office Kathmandu as defendants.
In his writ registered at the SC in 2008, Chitrakar claimed the Rana-led committee as the legal one.
In 2010, October 4, the SC had given the verdict in favor of Rana-led committee. Although the then President Dhurba Bahadur Pradhan and then General Secretary Shrestha had filed a petition requesting to reconsider the verdict, the SC had quashed the petition on April 29, 2011.
However, the legitimacy of the Rana-led committee was not implemented. The committee then frequently wrote to the Home Ministry requesting to implement the SC decision.
Later, even though the Shrestha-led committee had filed a petition again on October 2, 2018 demanding not to implement the decision, the SC had declared the Shrestha-led committee illegal.
The NOC had amended its statute last month planning to nominate Rana as honorary President of the committee in a bid to settle the long-running dispute.
Incumbent President Shrestha, who is also Member of Parliament, is running for the presidency again for the second term while former vice chair Umesh Lal Shrestha is in the race against him. Shrestha had defeated the same opponent in the last election by eight votes. Shrestha had obtained 17 votes.
Ratan Kumar Tandon was certain to be re-elected as the treasurer and NSC Vice-president Pitambar Timalsina was certain to be elected as deputy general secretary unopposed as no one filed candidacy against them. The deadline for withdrawing candidacy was until Thursday.
Of the total 27 eligible voters, 26 have registered their candidacy for various positions.
Meanwhile, Dasharath Stadium is where Nepal has held vital regional sports events in the past—such as the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup and 2013 SAFF Championship. And it is here Nepal will have to host inaugural and closing ceremonies of the 13th South Asian Games (SAG) in December. But as the date of this mega sporting event is nearing (we are only three months away) doubts remain as to whether the stadium will be ready for it within these three months. The officials of National Sports Council (NSC) have already postponed the games for three times due to lack of completion of stadium rebuilding following devastating earthquakes of 2015 which destroyed this sporting infrastructure four years ago. And our failure to complete the rebuilding process has already cost us dearly. Nepal had to shift away the home games of the 2022 World Cup Qualifiers against Kuwait and Taiwan, scheduled for September 5 and 10, because of delay in the reconstruction.
The 13th SAG itself was originally scheduled for February-March 2018. But to no avail. Nepal sought more time to ready the infrastructure. Then the meeting of South Asian Olympic Council held in December, 2017 approved new dates: March 9-18, 2019. Later, NSC postponed the Games to September. Nepal failed to meet this deadline too. Nepal must not resort to postponing the games citing the infrastructure issue. All resources should be directed toward completing the remaining works of rebuilding.
Although the NSC has expressed commitment to complete the stadium on time, national and international sporting bodies are still concerned about Nepal’s ability to host the Games largely because of lack of fast pace in rebuilding. It is clear what will happen if the rebuilding work is not fast-tracked: Nepal won’t be able to host the event scheduled for December 1 to 10.
- SOURCE – FOREIGN MEDIA
