DUSHANBE, December 4, 2012, Asia-Plus — The organizing committee for convocation of an extraordinary congress of the Democratic Party of Tajikistan (DPT) made a decision to convene the extraordinary congress of the party at the end of this month at a December 3 meeting, presided over by its head, Ms. Mamlakat Jaychiyeva.
Rajab Mirzo, the head of DPT’s organization for Dushanbe, the organizing committee members include 19 activists of the party, including two deputy chairpersons.
“The congress will consider issues related to replacement of leaders of the party, strategy of the party and intensification of work of the party’s primary organizations,” Rajab Mirzo noted.
According to him, the organizing committee has to determine the exact number of members of the party before the congress.
We will recall that Democrats in Sughd province and Gorno Badakhshan as well as some primary organizations of the party in other regions of the country do not recognize Masoud Sobirov as the party leader and consider Mahmadruzi Iskandarov their leader. They demand convocation of the extraordinary congress of the party.
In this connection, the organizing committee for convocation of the extraordinary congress of the party was established. Led by Mamlakat Jaychiyeva, the organizing committee is temporarily heading the party.
The Democratic Party of Tajikistan can trace its origins back to the last days of the Soviet Union. Registered on June 21, 1991 and banned by the Supreme Court on June 21, 1993, the Democratic Party of Tajikistan was reregistered on December 3, 1999.
At the end of 1990s, two factions laid claim to the Democratic Party of Tajikistan: the Almaty platform led by Mahmadruzi Iskandarov and the Tehran platform run by Azam Afzali. The Tehran platform later transformed itself into the Taraqqiyot (Progress) Party.
On October 5, 2005, the Supreme Court sentenced DPT leader Mahmadruzi Iskandarov to 23 years in prison. The sentence followed his conviction on charges of terrorism, the embezzlement of state funds, and the illegal storage of weapons, though his supporters say he was jailed for political motives.
The party split into two factions again and the Ministry of Justice recognized Masoud Sobirov as the legitimate leader of the Democratic Party of Tajikistan in October 2006.
