SAARC Tournament Qualifier in Bangladesh

From http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2008/09/18/news0784.htm

The four-day long national round of first SAARC School Debate Championship-2008 ended yesterday at the Teacher-Student Centre auditorium of Dhaka University (DU).

Manarat International School and College, Dhaka secured the championship of the national round participating by 24 schools of the country.

Debaters Saad Bin Amjad and Anam Hossain of the champion team of the country will compete with the national champions of other member countries of SAARC at the regional round to be held in New Delhi next month.

The national round of the debate was organised by the Dhaka University Debating Society (DUDS) with cooperation of London Metropolitan University, UK and Centre for Development Communication (CDC). The regional round will be organised by the Rajib Gandhi Foundation of India.

Vice Chancellor of Dhaka University Professor S M A Faiz spoke as the chief guest at the prize giving ceremony and distributed crests among the champions.

Pro-Vice Chancellor of Dhaka University Prof AFM Yusuf Haider, Executive Director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Dr Iftekharuzzaman, Editor of the editor.net Maskwaith Ahsan and member of Londonmet Bangladesh Alumni Association Tanzim Anwar spoke as special guests.

President of DUDS Mofazzal Hossain Sumon presided over the prize giving ceremony.

Congratulating the champion team, speakers urged them to try their level best at final round in the Delhi for upholding the image of the country.

They also hoped that the first SAARC School Debate Championship would expedite the ongoing effort of transforming the SAARC into a people-to-people forum.