Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Fazlur Rehman criticised on Sunday the conditions attached by Washington to US aid for Pakistan. Talking to reporters at the Karachi airport, Fazl also slammed the new US strategy for Pakistan and Afghanistan. "The US is giving us aid in an insulting way," he said, adding that President Asif Ali Zardari should not have welcomed such 'humiliating assistance' without a parliamentary debate. Fazl also condemned US drone strikes in the Tribal Areas. He said that President Zardari should have announced the repeal of the controversial 17th Amendment during his address to a joint sitting of the parliament on Saturday, as "further delay can create problems". "We want the implementation of recommendations made by an all-parties' conference in London ... we were promised the restoration of the constitution to its pre-1999 state," he said.
Expressing reservations over contacts between the prime minister and Nawaz Sharif, Fazl said he did not see the process as a productive one, but "as a politician, I pray for its success".