Another scheduled meeting in plenary of the Milli Majlis 2022 spring session was held under the chairmanship of Speaker Sahiba Gafarova on 12 April.

The Chair of the Milli Majlis recalled, before the proceedings as per the agenda, the notification all the committee heads had received at the beginning of this year that a meeting of one of them would be held in Shusha every month. The first happening of the kind, which was a joint meeting of the Law Policy and State-Building Committee and the Defence, Security and Counter-Corruption Committee – took place over there on 8 April.

That event, which is destined to remain in the history of the Azerbaijani parliamentarism forevermore, came as one of the manifestations of the new reality birthed by the glorious victory won under the leadership of the president of the Azerbaijan Republic, the victorious Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev.

The Speaker of the Milli Majlis also stressed that the parliamentary committee meetings held in that particular town was a chip in the current year, declared the Year of Shusha by the esteemed president of the country and, consequently, yet another proof of the fact pronounced by the Garabagh is Azerbaijan slogan. A schedule of the Shusha committee meetings is in place already; it will be distributed amongst the committee heads in due course. According to Mrs Gafarova, this initiative of the Milli Majlis has the full backing of the Head of State.

The issues du jour were discussed then. The talkers were the chairman of the Labour and Social Policy Committee Musa Guliyev and the MPs Sabir Rustamkhanli, Sahib Aliyev, Hikmat Mammadov, Ilham Mammadov, Nigyar Arpadarai, Aghiya Nakhchivanli, Fazail Agamali, Razi Nurullayev and Fazil Mustafa. They said that the country had been advancing since the people of Azerbaijan had wisely re-elected Ilham Aliyev at the presidential ballot of 11 April 2018. Crucial economic and political achievements have been secured since. The period of the national rule by the esteemed President Ilham Aliyev who continues the state strategy of the National Leader Heydar Aliyev successfully has been and is a period of the State strengthening, its economic and military prowess rising and the international reputation growing, according to the law-makers.

The victory attained in the 44 days’ Patriotic War under the guidance of the Head of State is the biggest triumph in the history of the State over two centuries past, the prevalence which was a logical outcome of the wise leadership and adherence to the state policy issuing forth from the national interest but also falling back on universal human values.

A number of burning issues and what is on the electors’ minds were commented on as well.

Then, the consideration of the agenda of the sitting commenced.

Speaker Sahiba Gafarova announced the six items, saying that the first and the second ones were draft resolutions of the Milli Majlis.

The Milli Majlis of the Azerbaijan Republic appoints and dismisses members of the Board of the Central Bank acting on the motions of the President pursuant to Paragraph 15 of Part 1 of Article 95 of the Constitution of the Azerbaijan Republic. Now, the Head of State has made the motions for the Milli Majlis to act upon, and relevant parliamentary resolutions have been drafted duly.

Item 1 of the agenda was about the resolution of the Milli Majlis whereby Elman Siraj oglu Rustamov was to be relieved of membership on the CBA Board, Sahiba Gafarova continued.

The chairman of the Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Committee Tahir Mirkishili said that his committee had considered the presidential motion about Elman Rustamov at a meeting.

The draft resolution was put on vote and approved then.

Item 2 was a draft resolution of the Milli Majlis to appoint Taleh Tahir oglu Kazimov as member of the CBA Board. That draft, too, had been reviewed at a precedent meeting of the committee, Mr Mirkishili said, adding that the motion regarding Mr Kazimov that had arrived as signed by the President of the Azerbaijan Republic had been scrutinised as it should and the committee had passed an affirmative conclusion on it.

The House voted this draft in after the commentaries made by the Regional Policy Committee chairman Siyavush Novruzov.

Taleh Kazimov who was present at the plenary sitting expressed his gratitude for the trust the President had put in him; he also thanked the parliament for backing him as a candidate. The Chair of the Milli Majlis congratulated Mr Kazimov and wished him success in the new office. Then, she gave the floor to Hikmat Mammadov of the Defence, Security and Counter-Corruption Committee so he could proceed to the 3^rd item on the agenda.

MP Mammadov talked about the draft resolution to ratify the Azerbaijani-Turkish-Georgian inter-governmental memorandum of understanding about conducting the Caucasian Eagle joint training exercise of the three countries’ special designation forces. MP Mammadov told the House that that international document laid down the conditions of the trilateral exercise and stipulated the respective obligations of the three sides.

The document had been examined by the International and Inter-Parliamentary Relations Committee the chairman of which Samad Seyidov underlined the draft’s import and mentioned the symbolic nature of that it had been considered at the very first Milli Majlis committee meeting held in the town of Shusha.

MP Aydin Mirzazade held forth on the draft as well as on it having been passed at the first Milli Majlis event in Shusha, namely, the first joint meeting there of the Law Policy and State-Building Committee and the Defence, Security and Counter-Corruption Committee. The MPs heard their colleague out and then voted the draft resolution in.

The next two items on the agenda were the two Bills coming up in the second reading, according to Madame Speaker who tabled the Food Security Bill for the chairman of the Agrarian Policy Committee Tahir Rzayev to tell the House about.

MP Rzayev provided general insights in the Bill’s articles that had aroused the most intense interest and invoked the biggest number of comments from MPs. He stressed that 9-chapter, 40-article Bill served the cause of protecting human lives and health. The broad interpretation of the terminology contained therein clarified the material issues related to the future law. Besides, according to MP Rzayev, the document contains clear-cut formulation of state regulation of food security and the corresponding tasks of the State.

The Bill meets all the food-security standards and requirements of the day. It addresses every aspect registration, approval, certification and tracking matters as well as state supervision over foodstuff security. All the provisions of the draft law are well-founded and aligned with the effective requirements in this field, according to MP Rzayev.

Comments and suggestions came from the committee and commission chairs Siyavush Novruzov, Hijran Huseynova and Eldar Guliyev as well as the MPs Fazil Mustafa, Tahir Karimli, Azer Badamov, Vugar Bayramov, Ali Masimli, Etibar Aliyev, Ilham Mammadov, Javid Osmanov, Rauf Aliyev, Fazail Agamali and Sevil Mikayilova.

The Bill was voted through the second reading eventually.

As the plenum went on, the House was introduced to the second reading of the amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Azerbaijan Republic, with the introduction given by Nizami Safarov of the Law Policy and State-Building Committee.

MP Safarov said that it was proposed to edit the Code’s Article 51-1 that governs electronic criminal judicial proceedings. The committee had received no editorial suggestions following the previous reading, MP Safarov mentioned.

The Bill was voted through the second reading.

The last item on the agenda was a set of draft amendments to the Criminal Code, in the first reading, presented by Nurlan Hasanov of the Law Policy and State-Building Committee.

The legislation of the Azerbaijan Republic postulates administrative penalties for the abuse of rights by commercial operators consisting in failure to repatriate FX funds and the resulting damage to the state – where such damage is estimated at up to twenty thousand manats. Any irregularity of this nature is repaired with a fine the amount of which equals the estimated value of the damage done. However, criminal charges follow when and if the said amount is exceeded.

Differently from Article 483 of the Code of Administrative Offences, the currently-effective edition of Article 208 of the Criminal Code only treats as culprits heads of the defaulting organisations. This means that other residents involved in such violations escape criminal prosecution. Now, the amendments to Article 208 of the CC are being put forward in order to fill that legal omission, MP Hasanov summed up.

The Bill was voted through the first reading after the House had listened to what MP Amina Agazade had to say about it.

And with that, the scheduled plenum of the Milli Majlis was over.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis