Kallibek Kamalov passes away

Kallibek Kamalov, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Uzbek SSR in the Karakalpak Autonomous Republic, has died, according to a QALAMPIR.UZ source.

Kamalov was born on March 18, 1926. He graduated from the Karakalpak Teachers’ Institute in 1947. Before completing his higher education, he worked as a teacher and was later assigned to Komsomol work. Over the years, he served as Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Karakalpak ASSR, Chairman of the Nukus City Executive Committee, Minister of Public Utilities, and Minister of Automobile Transport and Roads of the republic.

He served as Secretary of the Karakalpak Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan from 1958 to 1959, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Karakalpak ASSR from 1959 to 1963, and First Secretary of the Karakalpak Regional Committee from 1963 to 1984. From 1984 to 1986, he served as Consul General of the USSR in Constanța, Romania.

In 1987, Kamalov was arrested in connection with the “cotton affair.” In late 1989, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison and stripped of the title Hero of Socialist Labour and other awards. He was later pardoned along with other defendants in the case.

Kamalov’s brother, Temur Kamalov, served as Chairman of the Karakalpakstan Jokargy Kenes from 1997 to 2002. His son Murat Kamalov held the same post from October 2020 until the summer of 2022.