$25 million Aga Khan Foundation Medical Center nationalized

According to sources from Radio Ozodi, the prosecutor’s office of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region has filed a lawsuit regarding the nationalization of the Aga Khan Foundation Medical Center in the Barkhorug neighborhood of Khorog city.

The Aga Khan Medical Center was built in 2018 for 25 million dollars. The facility belonged to the Aga Khan Health Service.

Previously, the authorities nationalized the Serena Khorog INN, located in the Tem neighborhood of Khorog city. The hotel belonged to the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED). Currently, the owner of the hotel is the government of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region.

The nationalization is explained by claims that the privatization of the building was conducted improperly in the early 2000s, and the documents were filled out with errors.

At present, the facility has been transferred to an entrepreneur named Alisher, a native of GBAO, residing in the Sughd region.

The authorities of GBAO and representatives of the Aga Khan Foundation in Tajikistan have not yet commented on these reports.

The Khorog Serena Inn is located in a hard-to-reach mountainous area, not far from the border of Afghanistan with Tajikistan, and is designed in the style of a Pamir house. The facility is a popular destination for tourists, weddings, and conferences.

Photo: Internet

Khorog Serena Inn was part of the Swiss company Serena Tourism Promotion Services SA (STPS SA), which belongs to the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development AKFED.

The company owns the Serena brand and manages hotels under this brand in East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Rwanda, Congo, and Uganda), Mozambique, and South Asia (Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan).

It is reported that following the events in Badakhshan, which resulted in the deaths of dozens of residents and hundreds of activists being imprisoned, the authorities of Tajikistan are subjecting the Aga Khan Foundation in Tajikistan to unprecedented pressure, limiting the foundation’s socio-economic and humanitarian projects in the GBAO region.