islamabad: Pakistan’s foreign minister rushed back to Washington yesterday to air concerns about a giant aid package that has raised hackles among the nation’s powerful military, officials said.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was just last week in the US capital, where he voiced support for the five-year, $7.5bn package. But he was quickly sent back as opposition mounted in Pakistan. Qureshi will meet key US lawmakers including Senator John Kerry, one of the lead authors of the legislation backed by President Barack Obama, congressional and Pakistani officials said.

The US Congress on September 30 approved the plan to build schools, roads and democratic institutions in Pakistan in hopes of weakening the appeal of Islamic extremists in the violence-wracked nation.

But the plan has come under growing fire in Pakistan, particularly by the military which says the package infringes on the nation’s sovereignty. The legislation makes aid contingent on Pakistan fighting militants, including cracking down on the virulently anti-Indian movements Lashkare Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. It also calls on Pakistan to prevent the proliferation of nuclear technology from the Islamic world’s only declared nuclear power.

Obama, who is considering sending more troops into neighbouring Afghanistan, has strongly backed the aid plan, calling it an investment to prevent Pakistan from becoming a haven for militants. Kerry had voiced hope that the package could start to ease Pakistan’s virulent anti-Americanism by making a long-term commitment to the nation’s people rather than the government. But Pakistan’s army chief General Ashfaq Kayani said after a recent high-level meeting that the package posed “serious concern” on national security.

Kayani “reiterated that Pakistan is a sovereign state and has all the rights to analyse and respond to the threat in accordance with her own national interests,” according to a statement.