BAKU (Azerbaijan), April 4 — The resignation of Kazakhtan Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov (pic) on Wednesday, which also meant the resignation of the entire cabinet, did not come as a surprise, Azerbaijan’s Trend news agency reported, quoting the executive director of the Centre for Political Science, North-South,Alexei Vlasov as saying.
“Kazakhstan is such an amazing country that we can predict reshuffle in any department ranging from the presidential administration to parliament every month. In this case, a predictor necessarily gets to the point sooner or later,” Vlasov told Trend on Thursday.
He recalled that some analysts have predicted the resignation of Akhmetov since December 2013.
According to the country’s legislation, the resignation of the head of the Cabinet of Ministers means resignation of the whole government and the ministers will continue to perform their duties until new appointments are made.
According to Vlasov, Akhmetov was a quite worthy prime minister by the standards of the country seeking to enter the top 30 of the most competitive countries in the world.
“Serik Akhmetov wasn’t doing great deeds, but at the same time he wasn’t making tragic mistakes,” the executive director said.
However, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev decided that it is time for a change, and none other than Karim Massimov should headed the Cabinet of Ministers, according to the expert.
“The return of Massimov to the Cabinet of Ministers is the restoration of historical justice, since no other prime minister has looked at the prime minister’s chair as authentically as Karim Massimov,” he added.
Massimov had previously served as Prime Minister of Kazakhstan from Jan 10, 2007 to Sept 24, 2012.
Akhmetov resignation was accepted by the president. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev had proposed Karim Massimov to the post of the new prime minister. The candidacy was approved by Kazakhstan’s parliament.
— BERNAMA
