The government is all set to break a long tradition by awarding shooter Atiqur Rahman with the National Sports Award despite him already receiving the Swadhinota Award, the highest civilian award in Bangladesh. Atique is one of the six sports personalities to have received the award for his gold-medal winning feat in the 1991 Commonwealth Games in Auckland.
The other five award winners are Grand Master Niaz Morshed (1989), late sprinter Shah Alam (1991), late athlete Kazi Abdul Alim (1993) and former footballers Zakaria Pintu (1995) and Kazi Salahuddin (1996).
Apart from Pintu, none of them are recipients of the National Sports Award. Pintu, captain of the Swadhin Bangla Football Team, could win both the awards as the National Sports Award was given to him before he was selected for the Swadhinota Award.
Insiders said that those sportsmen who have already received the country’s highest award are no longer considered for any other national awards and this is the reason why eminent sports personalities like Salahuddin and Niaz did not win the National Sports Award.
However, the tradition is going to be changed as the national award selection committee, led by former state minister for youth and sports Ahad Ali Sarker, recently finalised names of 32 sports personalities for the 2010, 2011 and 2012 national sports award, with the inclusion of Atique’s name in the 2010 list, it was learnt.
Though the award was not officially announced yet, the news of Atique winning it already is being circulated in the sports arena, taking many by a surprise. It also left Niaz, the first Grand Master in South Asia, surprised.
‘I don’t know how they selected Atique for the national award as much as I know that when a person receives the highest government award he will not be nominated for other government awards,’ said Niaz.
Meanwhile, Sibnath Roy, secretary of National Sports Council claimed that there were no bar in selecting a sports personality who previously received the highest achievement.
‘There is no bar in selecting a sportsperson for the National Sports Award who previously received the Swadhinota Award,’ said Sibnath, who was a member of the selection committee, on Tuesday.
However, another member of the selection committee, Harunur Rashid, admitted that it was a mistake and said that they broke the tradition as they did not have enough information whilst finalising the list.
‘Before finalising the awardee list for three years, we didn’t have enough information and documents to assess it properly,’ said Harun adding that, ‘usually the government follows the tradition as they don’t prefer a less-important award for a person who has won the highest award in the past.’
-With New Age input
