The Hague-based Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is sending inspectors to the southern port city Karachi on April 29 to inspect Pakistan's largest fertilizer plant, Fauji Jordan Fertilizer, a senior official told AFP.

"They are more than welcome to inspect the Fauji Jordan Fertilizer site," he said, asking not to be named. "Pakistan does not have any chemical weapons."

The foreign ministry said the inspection "was the first of its kind in Pakistan," but called it "a routine matter."

The inspection will be conducted under the 1993 global Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) treaty, which commits its 151 signatory states including Pakistan to work towards the elimination of weapons of mass destruction.

The OPCW said that apart from military sites, industrial sites which produced certain CWC-listed chemicals -- referred to as "scheduled chemicals" -- for a range of commercial, medical, agricultural and other uses were among those subject to "routine" inspections by its experts.

"As a matter of routine and probability, the longer the convention is in operation, the higher the probability is that facilities that have been declared as producing 'scheduled' chemicals will be inspected," spokesman Peter Kaisar told AFP by phone from The Hague.

The OPCW had inspected more than 1,400 sites in 52 countries, he added.

He was unable to confirm next week's visit as the organisation does not comment on planned inspections.

The foreign ministry said the visit was "not a chemical weapons inspection as Pakistan was not a chemical weapons state.

Under the CWC "a defined category of industrial units in all member states are visited by officials of the OPCW," it said.

The foreign ministry claimed the CWC had helped reveal a chemical weapons program in Pakistan's arch-rival India.

The team of inspectors arriving next week will include a Pakistani.

According to its website, OPCW inspection teams can include chemical production technologists, chemical production logistics specialists, industrial and analytical chemists, chemical weapons munitions specialists, paramedics and medical specialists.

Shares on the Karachi Stock Exchange fell 3.5 percent on fears sparked by news of the inspection, analysts said.

The benchmark KSE-100 index lost 105.17 points to close at 2862.32.

"The news of the proposed visit made investors jittery as they foresaw Iraq-like treatment with Pakistan," InvestCap Securities cheif analyst Mohammad Sohail told AFP.

SPACE.WIRE