KARACHI, April 29: A three-member team of inspectors of the Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on Tuesday conducted an inspection of a fertilizer plant in the outskirts of the city.

They carried out day-long inspection of the joint venture FFC Jordan Fertilizer company but the media was not allowed access to them or to go inside the plant during their visit.

The three-member team included Erwin B. Caserino (Mexico), Enrique de la (Philippines), and Abdul Ghafoor Shahid (Pakistan).

Before the inspectors’ visit to the plant, a director-general of the foreign office on disarmament, Tipu Sultan, called it a “routine matter” and not a chemical weapons inspection.

“This inspection will benefit Pakistan as it will endorse our credibility as a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993,” said the foreign office official.

Although he claimed this was the first such visit to a plant in Pakistan, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali later told reporters that “this was not the first time. They had come even before, probably in 2001-2002.”

But the official was categorical that it was the first visit and he was “not concerned over the timing of the inspection because Pakistan has nothing to hide.”

He emphasized that the inspectors were not chemical weapons inspectors.

They were here to check safety standards, environment and consumption of the chemicals imported for the plant, he emphasized.

More than 150 countries by virtue of their membership of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) had agreed to allow verification of their chemical industry.

During their visit to the plant the inspectors were given a detailed briefing by the plant general manager on the basis of which they would prepare their report. Pakistani authorities are entitled to have a look at their report before they submit it to their organization.