Lara made a fluent 122 and Shivnarine Chanderpaul braved dehydration to score a fighting 81 before the West Indies crumbled to 291 for an overall lead of just 12 runs.

Pakistan _ which scored 485 in reply to the West Indies first-innings score of 206 _ lost its opener Mohammad Hafeez (1) before racing to 13-1 in fading light.

Pakistan's second-string fast bowlers Umar Gul (4-99) and Shahid Nazir (3-63) once again shared the bulk of wickets like they did in the first innings and made up for the loss of two key banned fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif.

Gul finished the match with impressive figures of 9-164 and Nazir claimed 6-105.

``Gul and Nazir bowled extremely well in the absence of Akhtar and Asif and I am proud of them,'' Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq said.

``Yousuf is in form of his life and his innings helped us to build a strong total and put pressure on the West Indies.''

The left-handed experienced batting pair of Lara and Chanderpaul featured in a 137-run partnership and defied Pakistan bowlers for 3 1/4 hours with some impressive stroke play.

``(The) majority of our players are playing for the first time in Pakistan and I believe that we have bowlers who can take 20 wickets in Test matches, but for that we need to put runs on board,'' Lara said.

Lara's departure at the total of 238 midway into the second session ended the West Indies resistance as it lost the last six wickets for 53 runs.

``I wanted to bat throughout today and even tomorrow and that's why I didn't take off the helmet after completing the century,'' Lara said. ``Unfortunatley it didn't happen.''

Chanderpaul, who hit eight fours in his 178 ball innings, was the eighth wicket to fell when one run was still needed to wipe out the 279-run deficit. He edged Nazir's delivery with the second new ball to Mohammad Yousuf.

Lara _ the leading scorer in Test cricket _ was trapped lbw by part-time off-spinner Mohammad Hafeez off a delivery that kept straight after. The elegant left-handed Lara entertained with 19 boundaries in his 215-ball innings of five hours.

Wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal fumbled a stumping opportunity off Chanderpaul soon after Lara was dismissed while Imran Farhat dropped a regulation catch at forward short leg before Dwayne Bravo had scored.

Bravo struggled for 19 deliveries to score two runs but left the West Indies lurching at 248-6 when Gul had him lbw.

Leg-spinner Danish Kaneria (1-78) finally got a wicket in his 27th over of the innings when he had Denesh Ramdin (1) caught close to the wicket by Farhat.

It was another debatable decision by Sri Lankan umpire Asoka de Silva as the television replays showed that the ball had not contacted Ramdin's bat.

Lara completed his third successive Test century against Pakistan off 180 balls soon after the lunch break when he hit a cracking square cut off Gul for his 16th boundary.

Lara is now third on the list of all-time leading century-makers in Test cricket behind Indian batsmen Sachin Tendulkar (35) and Sunil Gavaskar (34).

Chanderpaul followed with his half-century off 116 balls with five boundaries before Hafeez removed Lara and the West Indies lost its way.

Earlier, the West Indies lost just one wicket in the first session _ nightwatchman Fidel Edwards (10) _ and added 114 runs after it resumed at the overnight 74-3.

Lara, resuming at the overnight 28, batted aggressively and brought up his half-century with a well-timed straight driven boundary off Gul.

The second Test begins at Multan from Sunday while Karachi will host the last Test of the series from Nov. 27-Dec. 1 before both teams compete in the five limited-overs internationals.