MUZAFFARABAD, Jan 29: The technical issues and other relevant aspects regarding the tour of French surgeons to Azad Kashmir to provide humanitarian aid have been finalized, a senior doctor told Dawn on Wednesday.
AJK surgery director Dr Bashirur Rehman Kant said that the former French minister for the international cooperation and development, Prof Bernard Debre, had held detailed meetings with the AJK government functionaries besides visiting the Combined Military Hospital and Abbas Institute of Medical Sciences in Muzaffarabad, where the members of the mission would treat the patients for one week as part of their programme to start joint capacity building programme between the institutions and the Assistance Publique of Paris.
The professor also called on AJK Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan along with the UNFPA country representative for Pakistan, Mr Olivier Brasseur.
The premier had expressed his gratitude to both for selecting Azad Kashmir for the mission and assured maximum cooperation, including the boarding, lodging as well as security of the mission, said Dr Kant.
He said that the mission would comprise seven groups of specialists in gynaecology, urology, orthopaedics, plastic surgery, anaesthesia besides the nurses expert in theatre work, and would bring medical supplies, surgical disposable and electro medical equipment with it, expected to be worth 2 million US dollars.
The AJK government had appointed Dr Kant as the head of the surgical team to identify the cases for the mission from the whole of AJK with particular focus on the Kashmiri refugees as well as those AJK nationals who had been displaced from areas along the Line of Control due to Indian shelling.
Dr Kant said that the Assistance Publique of Paris was also interested in initiating a technical exchange programme with the gynaecologists and surgeons of Azad Kashmir — a collaboration which already exists between it and China, Cambodia, West Indies and some African countries.
Before leaving Azad Kashmir, Dr Debre told a selected gathering at a luncheon hosted in his honour by AJK chief secretary Shahid Rafi in Lohar Galli rest house that the mission was very important for him and the team, and hoped that it would be of similar significance for the people of Azad Kashmir.
“I came to Azad Kashmir with a hope and wishes to bring something for as well as understand the people of this state because I believe that it is very important for us to have such an understanding,” he said.
He announced that the mission would not remain confined to a single visit, but would continue in the coming years as well.
Prof Debre said: “I know you are in very difficult region and circumstances. Unfortunately we cannot resolve the issue of war in April, but we are here to have an understanding of the situation and also to have colleagues from Kashmir and Pakistan to come to France.”
“Our duty is to treat people wherever they are and whoever they are, he added.
Stating that the mission could also offer the opportunity of raising the awareness of the French and European public to the situation of the people in Azad Kashmir, he told the gathering that he would bring a team of ten journalists from France to highlight in the world accurate and objective picture of the region.
Prof Debre is the son of former French prime minister Michel Debre and the twin brother of the current President of French Parliament.