In a report released at a news conference in Dushanbe, Rustam Mirzozoda, the head of Tajikistan’s High Economic Court, stated on August 7 that the Economic Court of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) has granted the request of the GBAO chief prosecutor’s office for the appropriation of a land plot in GBAO’s capital, Khorog, where the University of Central Asia (UCA)’s campus funded by the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) is located.

According to him, University officials have filed a cassation appeal against this decision and this appeal is currently under consideration. 

Mirzozoda noted that the main reason for appropriation of the land plot is a breach of Article 25 of Tajikistan’s Land Code on leasing the land to foreigners for a certain period, i.e. up to 50 years.  

Article 25 of the Land Code of Tajikistan concerns assignment (allocation) of land to foreign citizens and foreign legal entities. The article states that foreign citizens and foreign legal entities can be given land plots for a period up to 50 years.  

“Unfortunately, at the time of the decision on the use of the land plot allocated for the University, this provision of the law was not observed by foreign citizens.  At present, the decision was made by the court of the first instance and University officials have filed the cassation appeal against this decision in the court of the second instance, and this appeal is currently under consideration,” Mirzozoda noted. 

However, it was not mentioned exactly how the law was violated.

Some media outlets reported last month that prosecutors have sought to appropriate a land plot in the Khorog, where UCA’s campus funded by the AKDN is located.   According to them the land was purchased by the AKDN in the late 1990s, but officials now say the sales were illegal.

The University of Central Asia (UCA) was founded in 2000 as a private, not for profit, secular university under an International Treaty signed by the Presidents of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, and His Highness the Aga Khan; ratified by their respective Parliaments and registered with the United Nations.  The University is a unique institution of higher education focused on the development of mountain societies.  The University is a unique institution of higher education focused on the development of mountain societies, with its School of Arts and Sciences campuses in Naryn (Kyrgyzstan) and Khorog (GBAO, Tajikistan), designed by award-winning architect, Arata Isozaki.  The Tekeli campus in Kazakhstan is currently in the planning stage.  UCA’s Graduate School of Development has five research institutes, and the School of Professional and Continuing Education with 17 Learning Centers has graduated over 200,000 learners since 2006.

UCA’s Khorog campus in Tajikistan was officially inaugurated on September 14, 2018, joining the world-class center for knowledge and learning, which connects isolated rural communities with the global community.

In his address at the inauguration of the Khorog campus, Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon acknowledged the importance of the new campus as it strives to meet the broader goals of the University of Central Asia: “The University of Central Asia in Khorog is opening a new page in our country’s education system…  I am convinced that the operation of this newly established facility will benefit not only our country, but it will also strengthen the multifaceted cooperation between the countries of the region in the field of education.”

Media reports say officials in Tajikistan have taken over several major properties, including a hotel, a lycee, and a city park that are linked to the Aga Khan, Imam (spiritual leader) of Shia Ismaili Muslims, in the country's Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO).

The overwhelming majority of GBAO's some 250,000 residents identify as Shia Ismaili Muslims.

The government reportedly went on to nationalize a recreational park in Khorog in August. The AKDN had reportedly invested about US$4 million in the remaking of the park between 2004 and 2005.

Sources close to the matter in Khorog told Radio Liberty on condition of anonymity that Aga Khan Medical Center was to be targeted next.  The US$25 million facility opened in 2018.

In June, the government suspended the license of the Aga Khan Lycee that was established in Khorog in September 1998.

It was renamed the State Lycee for Gifted Students and it now operates under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and Science of Tajikistan.