The World - News from March 7, 1989

The president of the Soviet Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan was ousted after charges surfaced that he promoted relatives of former government and party leaders while serving on the republic’s Academy of Sciences, the Tass news agency said. The Uzbek Supreme Soviet relieved Pulat K. Khabibullayev from his duties as chairman of the Presidium, the Parliament’s executive body, Tass said. The dispatch did not say whether Khabibullayev, who had been in his post for less than a year, faces criminal charges. Mirzaolim Ibragimov, 61, a teacher who represented Uzbekistan at the Council of Ministers in Moscow, was named to replace Khabibullayev.