Asif said Pakistan’s decision to once again align with Washington after 1999, particularly in relation to Afghanistan, inflicted lasting damage on the country.
Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has made serious accusations against the United States, claiming that Washington exploited Islamabad for its strategic interests and then discarded it “worse than a toilet paper”.
Addressing Parliament, Asif remarked that Pakistan’s decision to re-align with the US after 1999, particularly concerning Afghanistan, was a mistake that caused lasting damage on the country.
He further described the US-backing as a mistake whose consequences Pakistan continues to bear decades later.
Khawaja Asif’s Big Afghan War Admission
Khwaja Asif denied that Pakistan’s involvement in the Afghanistan conflict was motivated by religious duty and admitted that Pakistanis were mobilised and sent to fight under the guise of jihad.
Additionally, he highlighted that even Pakistan’s education system was reshaped to legitimise these wars and stated that several ideological changes still remain embedded to this day.
Asif further challenged the decades-old narrative and argued that the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan during the 1980s was dictated by American geopolitical interests rather than any genuine religious imperative, insisting that the circumstances never warranted a declaration of jihad.
The defence minister noted that Pakistan’s participation in conflicts that were not even its own produced long-term instability and caused severe social damage.
‘US Treated Pakistan Worse Than Toilet Paper’
Asif said the costs of realigning with the US after 1999, particularly following the September 11, 2001 attacks, were devastating. “Pakistan was treated worse than a toilet paper and was used for a purpose and then thrown away,” he said in the Parliament.