DUSHANBE, March 16, 2012, Asia-Plus — A meeting to commemorate founders of the Islamic Revival Party (IRP) – Said Abudllo Nuri and Muhammadsharif Himmatzoda – will take place at IRP’s headquarters in Dushanbe on March 17.
IRP deputy leader Saidumar Husaini, who is also deputy of the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament), has told Asia-Plus that the main objective of the meeting is “in informing young members and supporters of the party of thoughts and ideas of the party founders.”
“More than 100 guests – representatives of the government, political parties and former members of the Commission for National Reconciliation (CNR) as well as representatives of diplomatic missions and intelligentsia – have been invited to attend the meeting,” Husaini said.
Founded in October 1990, the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan was registered on December 4, 1991. It was banned by the Supreme Court in June 1993 and legalized in August 1999. Its official newspaper is
Najot
(Salvation).
The Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan is the only Islamic party registered in CIS Central Asia. The party was the backbone of the civil war-era opposition coalition called the United Tajik Opposition (UTO). The main leaders of the UTO came from the Islamic Revival Party. Of the groups that made up the UTO, only the Islamic Revival Party won seats in the 2000 parliamentary elections. As part of the 1997 Tajik Peace Accord, the UTO received 30 percent of positions in the government. The Islamic Revival Party — already divided from UTO allies — took most of these places. The part founders are Said Abudllo Nuri and Muhammadsharif Himmatzoda. When the IRP chairman Nuri died in August 2006, Muhiddin Kabiri was elected to head the party.
According to some sources, IRP now has some 25,000-30,000 members. It won two seats in the 2010 parliamentary elections.
