MUZAFFARABAD, Jan 25: A former French minister will reach here on Sunday on a three-day visit to finalise the arrangements for the arrival of a team of surgeons from France, which is likely to come here on a humanitarian and capacity building mission in April, an official told Dawn on Friday.

Dr Naeem Mir, deputy director, Azad Kashmir population welfare department, said that Prof Bernard Debre, former French minister of international cooperation and development in Balladur government (1993-99), would meet the AJK president, prime minister and other senior government officials and would arrange technical issues regarding the tour of the surgeons, during his stay. Prof Debre was also scheduled to visit the Line of Control and a Kashmiri refugees camp in Muzaffarabad, he added.

Dr Mir said that the visit of Prof Debre was being sponsored by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), on the special request of the AJK Population Welfare department. The UNFPA country representative in Pakistan, Dr Oliver Brassuer, would accompany the professor.

The objective of the surgeons’ mission was to provide humanitarian aid to the people of AJK, besides starting a joint capacity building programme between the local medical institutions and the Assistance Publique of Paris, he said.

He said the mission could also help raise the awareness of the European public about the situation of the AJK people.

The team, comprising urologists, gynaecologists, and orthopedists, would work in the local Combined Military Hospital, for a week, along with the local doctors.

Patients for specific surgery would be selected, in advance, by a team, likely to be led by AJK Surgery Director Dr Bashirur Rehman Kant.

Dr Mir said that the team would also bring equipment and supply worth Rs200 million, for the hospital.