UzLand.Uz
December 15

Speaking about the new parliament's powers, Uzbek President Islam Karimov said that in future the parliament will consider nominations for prime minister, deputy prime ministers and other officials.

The upper house Senate will also discuss and approve nominations for prosecutor-general, chairman of the Supreme Court, chairman of the Constitutional Court and some others, he said, speaking during a break in the parliamentary session.

President Karimov: "Now about the powers of the parliament. Let us look at the way a government is formed. I shall mention just one point here. Until today many positions of power, not just positions of power but the appointment of people to government posts, including the posts of prime minister, his deputies and other members of the government, the procedure was as follows: I appointed them by decree, and then recommended this to parliament, and then it was approved by parliament. That was the way how the government was formed.

"The most important thing, as I said today, is that next year, or rather, regarding future appointments, the president will only recommend the prime minister and his deputies, and the parliament will discuss these issues and will approve the prime minister and his deputies. As regards the members of the new government, they will be recommended by the new prime minister because he should form his own team. The president will approve that. This has its own aspects. If the prime minister does not form his team, that is, the members of the government, he will not be able to implement his programme presented to parliament when he is approved by parliament for the post.

"After all, you, journalists, ask them to show their programme. Let Prime Minister Otkir Sultonov tell you about his programme. I believe that he would say that his programme is the president's programme, each of them would say that. If we approach the issue from this point of view many things would change.

"Now another question. I spoke about this. We set up the upper house (Senate), and it will only pass or block any bills, but it will not work on them. But it will still be playing an important role from the point of view of approval, including approving people as the prosecutor-general, the chairmen of the Central Bank, the State Committee for Nature Protection, the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court and the economic court.

"Currently, the leadership of the National Security Service is approved by the president. Now I relinquish responsibility for that. Tomorrow he will be approved by the Senate because I do not want, I do not know who will succeed me, whether it will be a person who understands what absolute power is and will even be afraid of this power or will it be a person who will use this power for his own goals. I am already thinking about this. I am hinting at something, and so draw your own conclusions from this.

"Today we are making our constitution in such a way that will suit not Karimov but presidents who will come and work with you for the benefit of our country.

"I have not mentioned ambassadors who are currently appointed and dismissed only by the president. In the future they will be approved by the Senate only."

P.S. The issues discussed during the last day of the session included the new wording of the draft bill on citizens' appeals. The draft of this law has been improved through nationwide discussion. In particular, the amended version envisages increasing (officials') responsibility for considering citizens' appeals. This bill was adopted after debate. In addition, amendments and addenda have been made to 25 existing laws during the session. Agreements and contracts on cooperation with the USA, Kazakhstan and Lithuania were ratified. The session debated other issues within its remit as well. In particular, some presidential decrees and parliamentary resolutions were approved. Changes were made to the structure of the country's Supreme Court, that is, a new member was elected.

---