At the National Kurultai, the President and other representatives of the republican authorities were also able to familiarize themselves with the situation in the regions during a conversation with members of the Kurultai. Lyazzat Kozhakhmet is sure that such a meeting is a unique platform where pressing issues can be discussed directly, and they will definitely be taken into account.
“At the National Kurultai in Atyrau, the section on art, culture, and spirituality was led by the Minister of Culture and Information Aida Balaeva, the section on civil society issues by Presidential Assistant Ruslan Zheldibay, the section on socio-economic and regional development by Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Tamara Duisenova, and We talked about education and science with the Minister of Science and Higher Education Sayasat Nurbek.
One of the issues that both the Head of State and we raised concerned the spread of drugs among young people. The President noted in his speech that this has become a real epidemic, and last year alone more than seven and a half thousand crimes were identified in this area, and 41 tons of narcotic substances were seized from illicit trafficking. Now the country provides for fairly strict punishment for drug trafficking, Tokayev noted, and proposed maximizing the responsibility for the production of narcotic substances, equating it to the most serious crimes.
The fact is that today children 17-20 years old face up to 10 years in prison for distributing one gram of drugs. Of course, the children want to earn a lot – the amounts are estimated at 200 thousand tenge a week, but the fact that a child can be deceived is not taken into account. And the punishment if he is caught is very severe. It must be said that a 14-year-old child who transported drugs is currently serving a sentence in Kazakhstan. In addition, there are so-called pawnbrokers – those who hide packages of drugs in specified places, and young people are also involved in this. If it turns out that an organized group with a large amount of drugs is working on this, the pledge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Therefore, parents should monitor what their child is doing and how they earn money. It is easy to deceive a child and interest him in big finances. But in the end, all responsibility falls on the person detained at the crime scene – and those who are higher in rank in this chain go unpunished, they are not found…
At a meeting in Atyrau, the famous lawyer Aiman Umarova also reported to the President about this issue. She emphasized once again: in general, it is not the real drug dealers who are brought to justice, but the guys who are pawnbrokers – and as a result they receive long prison sentences. It is necessary to intensify efforts to find members of such organized groups, and, of course, take legal measures against them.
Lawyer Aiman Umarova today also defends children and women who have been subjected to violence. She has participated in more than 40 cases of this category as a defense attorney. With the support of the National Commission for Women’s Affairs and Demographic Policy under the President, Ayman leads the One-Stop-Service project – within the framework of the project, he provides assistance to women and children who have been subjected to violence. And here we are faced with another injustice and a pressing issue: the parole of the perpetrator, the replacement of punishment with a more lenient one, as well as the withdrawal of applications from women with minor children. As a result, the situation does not change at all. We also talked about this during the meeting of the National Kurultai. Efforts to take action in such cases also need to be strengthened so that the perpetrators receive the punishment they deserve and understand that their actions are unacceptable.
In his speech, the Head of State repeatedly voiced these proposals and gave instructions to the government. That is, everything must be fair: this is the only way our society can become better. Because, as the President noted, there are now many known cases of cruelty.
In addition, as part of the National Kurultai, we visited historical places, met with scientists and representatives of various fields of activity. We learned that three Nobel brothers lived in Atyrau, who once participated in the birth of the oil industry in these parts. The house in which the Nobels lived in 1911 is still preserved and is now owned by a private individual, but is not protected as a cultural heritage. I think it would be great to make it a tourist attraction,” said Lyazzat Kozhakhmet.
Photo from the personal archive of Lyazzat Kozhakhmet
2024-03-26 06:20:29