MUZAFFARABAD, April 29: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani is most likely to pay a brief visit to the Azad Jammu and Kashmir capital on Wednesday to have firsthand knowledge of the developmental activities in the area ravaged by the October 2005 earthquake and also to address the special joint sitting of the region’s legislature.

According to his programme issued by the AJK Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD) here on Tuesday, Mr Gilani would be given a guard of honour by the AJK police on the premises of AJK Legislative Assembly shortly after his arrival at around 11am, following which AJK President Raja Zulqarnain Khan and Prime Minister Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan would call on him in the chamber of LA speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir.

He would then address the joint sitting of the AJK assembly and the AJK Council where, the sources said, he was likely to declare the new government’s policy on Kashmir.

Earlier, leader of the house and leader of the opposition would also speak at the session.

Later, the premier would hold meetings with the representative delegations of ruling Muslim Conference, opposition People’s Party, parliamentary opposition, All Parties Hurriyat Conference and Kashmiri refugees in the speaker’s chamber.

PPAJK President Chaudhry Abdul Majeed claimed that the prime minister would also address the Central Executive Committee of PPAJK before leaving the assembly building for the inauguration of the district headquarters complex. However, there was no mention of any such activity in the S&GAD circular.

The visit of the Pakistani premier comes at a time when the much hyped reconstruction process in the worst affected state capital appears to have been bogged down by a dispute with the Chinese companies over the profit margin.

At the November 2005 donors’ conference in Islamabad, the Chinese government had offered a $300 million preferential buyers’ credit (soft loan) against 1.5 per cent mark-up for the development of Muzaffarabad city with some certain conditions.

On its part, Pakistan has pooled $61 million for this project. Though the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Erra) and the two Chinese companies was signed in September last year, a dispute over the profit percentage had, however, been impeding the signing of the commercial contract between the two and subsequent initiation of the Muzaffarabad City Development Project (MCDP).

Sources say the Chinese companies had been seeking 35 per cent profit margin whereas Erra wanted this percentage to be reduced by at least 10 per cent. Lately, the Chinese companies had agreed to bring it down to 28 per cent but at the same time they had put a condition that Pakistan government should pick up or exempt the 6 per cent income tax, which meant that practically the profit margin was still standing at 34 per cent.

According to sources, on Monday evening a meeting was held between senior Pakistan government officials and the Chinese companies in Islamabad in the presence of Chinese ambassador to sort out this issue, but that had remained inconclusive.