ISLAMABAD, 20 March 2003 — Pakistan has drawn up contingency plans to meet any shortfall in fuel and foodstuffs and bolstered security around foreign missions in anticipation of a US-led invasion of Iraq, officials said yesterday.

“We have prepared contingency plans and we have built additional oil reserves which are enough for about a month,” Petroleum Minister Nuarez Shakoor told AFP.

Shakoor said the government was also examining how to maintain stability of fuel prices in case of a prolonged conflict.

“We have to absorb the impact of increased international oil prices.”

Pakistan depends on the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for oil imports.

Pakistan State Oil (PSO) was also working out contingency plans with oil companies to cope with possible war-inflicted supply cuts, PSO official Asif Aslam said.

“In case all supplies or imports are stopped... even then we will have 15 to 20 days fuel stock,” Aslam told AFP.

Officials said at least 30 days’ worth of stocks of wheat, rice and sugar were available. Pakistani security forces are on high alert in anticipation of a possible violent backlash from militants, police said.

Pakistan, home to dozens of extremist groups, bore the brunt of militant fury at the US-led bombing campaign in Afghanistan, with 11 deadly attacks claiming 74 lives, including three Americans, 11 French nationals and three suicide bombers.

“We are on alert as reaction here is possible in case of war. We have further tightened security around foreign missions,” said Tariq Jamil, police chief of the violence-ridden southern porty city Karachi, where six of the terror attacks occurred.

“Roads leading to the US Consulate building and diplomatic enclaves will be closed soon after an attack (on Iraq) as we expect protests here.”

In one of Pakistan’s largest ever rallies, around 100,000 people protested in Karachi on March 2 against the impending war.

The fundamentalist Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam warned that protests, which had so far been peaceful, could turn violent on reports of Iraqi casualties. “Emotions will be different if Americans start killing Muslims,” party spokesman Qari Usman said.

DPA adds: Minority groups in Pakistan fear fundamentalist groups will attack Christian churches and Hindu temples to avenge a US-led war in Iraq.

Citing several terrorist attacks on non-Muslim targets within the last year, Shahbaz Bhatti, president of All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA), told reporters in Islamabad yesterday that certain elements in the country were trying to depict the imminent Iraq war as a conflict between Christianity and Islam.

“We’re afraid that fundamentalist groups might take out their anti-US sentiment by attacking Christian churches and Hindu temples,” he said.

Minorities in Pakistan account for less than five percent of its 144 million population, dominated by Muslims. Christians account for more than half the minority population.

As many as 37 Christians have been killed and another 100 wounded in five terrorists attacks in different parts of Pakistan.

Supporting the APMA, Mehmoob Sada, executive director of Christian Study Center, also demanded extra security precautions for places of worship and education.