13th South Asian Games

Nepal’s SC vacates interim order to end uncertainty

By our correspondent

KARACHI: The uncertainty which had been created over the conduction of the 13th South Asian Games due to stay order given by the Nepal’s Supreme Court over the NOC elections a few days ago seems to end as the apex court has vacated an interim order.

Vacating the interim order, the apex court has allowed the Nepal Olympic Association to hold its elections within one week, a source told ‘The News’.

Meanwhile, according to Nepal’s media, the elections are now expected to be held on Saturday. The NOC General Assembly meeting was scheduled to be held last Friday before the Supreme Court intervened after receiving a petition from rival official Kamal Bahadur Chitrakar.

Chitrakar had filed a petition to stop the election amid an ongoing power struggle in Nepalese sport. A Nepal’s web portal claims that two different bodies claimed that they were the NOCs and Chitrakar backs a separate body run by Rukma Shumsher Rana. Chitrakar has claimed the organisation headed by Jeevan is “not authentic”.

Jeevan had previously claimed that the issue with the two bodies had been resolved, the web portal said. The South Asian Games are slated to be held in Kathmandu and Pokhara from December 1-10.

The Games faced postponement three times in the past as Nepal was not prepared for the task due to lack of infrastructure as the main facilities had been destroyed in the 2015 deadly earthquake.