DUSHANBE , July 12, Asia-Plus - The results of work of an inter-party commission to establish legitimacy of Mirhusein Narziyev-run wing of the Socialist Party of Tajikistan (SPT) are not valid, Davlat Sulaymonov, the head of department for registration of public associations and political parties of the Justice Ministry, remarked, commenting on the work of the inter-party examination commission.  

Mr. Sulaymonov stressed that only a court has the right to consider this issue.  He also noted that since 2001, the Justice Ministry had received only one report from the Narziyev-run wing of the SPT, but the report had been returned.  In 2004, the Justice Ministry officially registered the SPT wing run by Abduhalim Ghafforov.     

We will recall that following request of Mirhusein Narziyev the inter-party examination commission comprising representatives from the Party of Economic Reforms, Social-Democratic Party (SDPT), Democratic Party (DPT), and Islamic Revival Party (IRPT), as well as independent experts Taiqhun Karimov and Sherali Kenjayev examined various documents and materials concerning the SPT activity made a conclusion that Mirhusein Narziyev-run wing of the SPT acted within the framework of Tajikistan’s Constitution and laws.  Besides, according to members of the commission, the submitted materials questioned legitimacy of the SPT wing run by Abduhalim Ghafforov and Qurbon Vose.  According to them, the documents are also evidence that Abduhalim Ghafforov, the former head of the SPT for Dushanbe, and Qurbon Vose, the former deputy head of the SPT, had been expelled from the party for violating the party’s charter and ignoring resolutions passed by the party’s board in March 2000.

We will recall that Narziyev-run wing of the SPT has repeatedly issued statements accusing the government of interfering in the party’s internal affairs.  Thus, one of such statements issued in July 2004 said that two former party members, Abduhalim Ghafforov and Qurbon Vose, who were now government officials, held an unauthorized party congress in June 2004 together with other former party members in an attempt to discredit the Socialist Party.  For their part, Abduhalim Ghafforov and Qurbon Vose state it was their wing that was registered with the Justice Minister as the Socialist Party of Tajikistan.   

The SPT was founded in 1993 and registered with the Ministry of Justice on August 6 1996 .  The party''s founder, Safarali Kenjayev, was assassinated in Dushanbe in late March 1999 and the party has not been able to regroup since Kenjayev’s death.  The SPT has been divided into two factions: the pro-government faction led by Abduhalim Ghafforov, which is registered with the Ministry of justice, and the faction run by Mirhusein Narziyev, which is not registered with Ministry of Justice.