Amid ongoing efforts to further weaken former President Nursultan Nazarbaev and his associates, the Kazakh government has initiated amendments to the law on the Pantheon -- a burial site for the Central Asian nation's prominent figures -- that would remove Nazarbaev's relatives from the list of individuals who deserve to be buried at the pricey public site.
Media reports in Kazakhstan said on February 21 that the bill had been worked out by the Culture and Information Ministry.
The bill says relatives of all presidents, except their spouses, and other top officials, as well as laureates of the state Order of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Elbasy (National Leader) Nursultan Nazarbaev cannot be buried in the Pantheon.
The bill would reverse current law saying relatives of the first president of Kazakhstan, those of his successors, as well as relatives of the Constitutional Court's chairs and those of state secretaries have a right to be buried at the site.
The idea to construct the Pantheon -- a public building housing the graves of prominent Kazakhs and a cemetery sitting on some 9,000 hectares of land near Astana, the capital -- caused controversy in Kazakh society when it was initiated by Nazarbaev's government in 2016.
Many accused the government of misusing hundreds of millions of dollars of public funds and taxpayers' money amid an economic downfall, while others accused Nazarbaev of attempting to preserve the then-cemented cult of his personality even after his death.
The head of the Astana City Directorate for Land Issues, Toleughazy Nurkenov, said at the time that the move was needed "to implement the orders of the state leader [President Nazarbaev] regarding the construction of the National Pantheon and the necessity to set up a new city cemetery."
Nazarbaev, 83, and his inner circle lost power and influence after unprecedented anti-government protests in January 2022 that turned deadly after police and security forces opened fire on protesters.
Nazarbaev resigned as president in 2019, picking longtime ally Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev as his successor.
But he retained sweeping powers as head of the Security Council, enjoying the powers as "elbasy." Many of his relatives continued to hold important posts in the government, security agencies, and profitable energy groups.
The protests in January started over a fuel-price hike and spread across Kazakhstan amid widespread discontent over the cronyism that has long plagued the country. Toqaev subsequently stripped Nazarbaev of the Security Council role, taking it over himself.
Just days after the protests, several of Nazarbaev's relatives and those close to the family were pushed out of their positions or resigned. Some have been arrested on corruption charges.
Last year, Kazakh authorities annulled the Law on the First President -- the Leader of the Nation (Elbasy), depriving Nazarbaev's immediate family members of legal immunity.
Also in January 2023, parliament canceled Nazarbaev’s status of lifetime honorable member of the parliament’s upper chamber, the Senate.
In the last several months, Nazarbaev’s monument was removed from a site in front of the National Defense Ministry in Astana, his large portrait was removed from the Almaty metro, and his another monument in the atrium of the National Museum was also dismantled.