DUSHANBE, December 30, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- President’s decree on protection of rights of shareholders in Roghun may help attraction of funds for constriction of the Roghun hydroelectric power plant (HPP) to a certain extent, lawyer Shokirjon Hakimov said in an interview with Asia-Plus.

Actually, this decree legalizes capital earned by some residents of our country illegally, he noted.  “Persons who had taken into possession large financial and material resources during the civil war due to being closely connected with the country’s authorities now have a good chance to legalize them,” said the lawyer, “Now, obtaining a guarantee, they will be buying a large number of shares in Roghun with no fear.”

“However, open joint-stock company (OJSC), NBO Roghun, is not exactly OK in terms of legislation,” said Hakimov, “The president now must submit a bill on amendments to the law, under which the Roghun HPP was declared as exclusively public property, to the parliament.”

He further added that focusing Tajik society’s attention on the Roghun HPP served the government’s purpose to distract people’s mind from the upcoming important political event – parliamentary elections set for February 28, 2010.