We also managed to find out that:
Director of Sifat Pharma Sherali Kholov owns shares in the International Bank of Tajikistan. As established by the previous Radio Liberty investigationthis bank is associated with the brother of Ashraf Gulov, the husband of Parvina Rakhmonova;
The director of a subsidiary of Sifat Pharma advises competitors not to apply for government tenders in which his company is participating. Two entrepreneurs working in the same market sector spoke about this;
President Rahmon facilitated the establishment of business ties between his daughter’s company and a French pharmaceutical corporation;
a subsidiary of Sifat Pharma, owned by Parvina Rakhmonova’s daughter, received government contracts.
Radio Liberty sent requests to Sifat Pharma, Ashraf Gulov, the Ministry of Health of Tajikistan and the Presidential Administration asking for comment on government support provided to Sifat Pharma. At the time of this publication, all requests remained unanswered.
The media resources controlled by Rustam Emomali also serve the business interests of Parvina Rakhmonova. For example, Dushanbe-TV released a complimentary 20-minute report on Sifat Sanoat, a subsidiary of Sifat Pharma, which also produces medical clothing. It particularly emphasized product quality and the company’s role as a job creator. (The exact release date of the report is unknown, but the corresponding video was uploaded to YouTube in 2022.)
Dushanbe-TV is controlled by the Dushanbe city government, which has been headed by Mayor Rustam Emomali since 2017. Our attempts to contact the TV channel for comment were unsuccessful.
In this report, the director of Sifat Sanoat, Khokimsho Idiev, calls on entrepreneurs to create jobs in the country: “I believe that it is necessary to awaken the national feeling of all entrepreneurs so that they contribute to the implementation of the president’s policies. At least in terms of job creation.”
Two entrepreneurs working in the same sector of the economy told Radio Liberty’s Tajik service on condition of anonymity that it was Idiev who was putting pressure on competitors not to participate in government tenders for the purchase of medical clothing. “I wanted to take part in the tender and called [Идиеву] for advice. He said: “Don’t even try, this is our tender.” After that, I decided not to participate,” said one of the entrepreneurs.
The owner of another company also confirmed that Idiev “asked” him “not to participate” in state contracts for medical clothing. One of the entrepreneurs says that at business meetings in Dushanbe, Idiev often calls Sifat Sanoat “the company of the president’s daughter.” Idiev did not respond to our request to comment on the situation.
In a Dushanbe TV report, Idiev says that Sifat Sanoat “provides services to medical colleges and the Dushanbe road management.” Sifat Sanoat has received $142,500 in government contracts since March 2019, according to government procurement data reviewed by Radio Liberty.
In addition, the interests of the Sifat Sanoat company are lobbied by the Ambassador of Tajikistan to Turkey Ashraf Gulov, who is also the husband of Parvina Rakhmonova.
In November 2021, he organized a webinar on “partnerships between Tajik and Turkish companies from the medical and pharmaceutical sectors,” according to a news note on the website of the Tajik Embassy in Turkey. The webinar discussed the “importance of developing collaboration” in these areas, but no video or minutes of the online meeting were published on the website. In the screenshot of the webinar participants, you can recognize the CEO of Sifat Pharma, Sherali Kholov.
Kholov, who is described on the website of the President of Tajikistan as a “patriotic entrepreneur” who built a kindergarten in Dushanbe, has business ties not only with Parvina Rakhmonova, but also with other relatives of Gulov. He is also the owner of the International Bank of Tajikistan, which in turn has partnerships relations with two companies of Gulov’s brother Jamshed.
Khamidov replied via WhatsApp that he is currently working at Tibbi Tojik, and that he is no longer associated with Sifat Pharma. Judging by WhatsApp notifications, he read the journalists’ questions sent by Gulova, but at the time of publication of the material, Radio Liberty had not received a response to them.
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