Islamabad: Pakistan on September 30 denied reports that it had decided to throw open some of chemical industrial sites to international inspection and a programme schedule for the overseas monitors was being put in place.

"No such industrial inspection has been scheduled by the Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in Pakistan," a statement by the Pakistan Foreign Office said.

Pakistan is a state party to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), along with 145 other nations and is also a member of the 41-member executive council of OPCW.

"The OPCW conducts inspections of industrial units in many countries which have ratified the CWC. Such inspections are periodic and routine," it said adding that the government of Pakistan "has evolved an inter-Ministerial procedure to facilitate and to handle any such inspection when a request may be made by OPCW".

A local daily 'The News' had reported on September 30 quoting officials as saying that for the first time since it became a signatory to OPCW in 1993, Pakistan would throw open its five "big industrial" chemical plants for international inspection.

"All the arrangements for inspection have either been finalised or in progress to provide security to the inspectors for which the Pakistan foreign office has made a 'strict schedule' involving many local intelligence and security agencies," it said.

PTI