DUSHANBE, October 3, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- The Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) speaker Shukurjon Zuhurov has sharply criticized untimely preparation of government-to-government agreements for ratification.

His criticism, directed at some ministries and agencies, came during an address to a regular sitting of the third session of the Majlisi Namoyandagon of the fourth convocation on October 3.

“Today, we are considering the issue of ratification of an agreement between member nations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on conducting joint military exercises that was signed as long ago as mid-2007 and a government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and Kazakhstan on no-strings military aid that was signed as long ago as 2009,” the speaker said, noting that “it is not a good practice.”

According to him, many ministries and agencies are beginning to think of ratification of the government-to-government agreements only “when they have customs clearance problems.”

Meanwhile, presenting the government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and Kazakhstan on no-strings military aid, the First Deputy Defense Minister, Ramil Nadyrov, noted that that aid came from Kazakhstan at the beginning of last year.

Parliamentarians also ratified the agreement between Tajikistan and Switzerland on encouragement and mutual protection of investments and the ILO convention on home labor.