ISLAMABAD, Oct 5 The government put up a stout defence in the National Assembly on Monday of the so-called Kerry-Lugar bill seeking to triple non-military US aid to Pakistan to $7.5 billion over the next five years, rejecting opposition charges that attached conditions would hit the country's interests.

Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, responding to criticism by opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan at the start of the lower house session, said the conditions in the bill did not conflict with Pakistan's policies and pointed out that they would apply only to a still undetermined security assistance and not to $1.5 billion a year civilian aid.

It was the most forceful government defence of the bill, passed by the US Congress last week but yet to be signed into law by President Barack Obama, after persistent attacks from the opposition and other critics who portrayed the measure as the outcome of a possible compromise on national interests to serve American interests.

“Whose interests the Kerry-Lugar bill protects?” Chaudhry Nisar asked as he raised the issue in his speech, though a formal debate on the mater was set for Tuesday, and said “It serves American interests. Its conditionalities are contrary to Pakistan's interests.”

But he did not cite the conditions that he said had “no precedent in Pakistan's history”.

However, Mr Kaira gave a gist of the conditions to support his point, amid repeated cheers from the treasury benches, though Chaudhry Nisar left the house early to miss most of the minister's mix of oratory and argument that made it a government's day in the house.

The minister said President Asif Ali Zardari and the PPP-led coalition government of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani did not beg but only sought recompense for harm suffered by Pakistan as a western ally since the Afghan war of the 1980s and in the ongoing war against terrorism.

He said the PPP could never think of working against Pakistan's interests and sovereignty for which “our leaders sacrificed their lives”.

Mr Kaira said the conditionalities mentioned in the bill for the security assistance -- relating to nuclear non-proliferation, commitment to fight terrorists, strengthening anti-money laundering laws, non-subversion of judicial and political process by security forces, civilian control over the appointment of military leadership and parliamentary oversight of military budget -- were national policies which every democratic government would follow even without a US aid bill.

But he said Pakistan was not bound by these conditions and would continue to receive civilian aid even if the US secretary of state did not certify that Islamabad complied with them.

The house will meet again on Tuesday at 10.30am, when Interior Minister Rehman Malik is likely to speak on US statements about the existence of a so-called “Quetta Shura” of Afghan Taliban, while Water and Power Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf will respond to opposition leader's doubts about government assurances of the past to end load-shedding by December.

Speaker Fehmida Mirza agreed to a suggestion from the opposition leader to review security measures around the parliament which, he said, often appeared to be insulting to lawmakers, and suggested a committee to recommend suitable measures.