Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif confesses in Parliament, saying, “America used us like toilet paper…”

Islamabad. Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif admitted in Parliament that the United States used Pakistan for its strategic interests and then “discarded it worse than toilet paper.” He said that Pakistan paid a heavy price for its involvement in America’s wars.

Khwaja Asif questioned Pakistan’s re-activation in Afghanistan after 1999, saying that Islamabad then decided to once again side with Washington to secure American support. He stated that this decision proved disastrous for Pakistan.

‘A big mistake was made in the name of jihad’
Rejecting the official narratives that have been cultivated in Pakistan for years, the Defense Minister stated that Pakistan’s participation in the Afghan wars was not for the protection of Islam. He openly admitted that Pakistanis were sent to fight and die in the name of jihad, which was a wrong decision.

Khwaja Asif also stated that changes were made to Pakistan’s education curriculum to justify these wars, and even today those changes have not been fully reversed.

He stated that the Afghan war against the Soviet Union in the 1980s was not a religious duty but part of American strategy. According to Asif, Russia did not occupy Afghanistan in a manner that necessitated the declaration of jihad, yet Pakistan jumped into that war. He acknowledged that the country is still suffering the consequences of that decision decades later.

“America used and abandoned”
The Defense Minister said that Pakistan paid a heavy price for realigning with the US after 1999, from which the country has yet to fully recover. He directly attacked former military rulers Zia-ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf, accusing them of dragging Pakistan into wars it didn’t deserve.

Using extremely harsh language in Parliament, Khawaja Asif said that Pakistan was used “worse than toilet paper.” First, it was taken along when needed, and then brutally abandoned.

Referring to the period after September 11, 2001, he said that Pakistan took the lead against the Taliban in the US-led War on Terror. Although the US later withdrew, Pakistan still suffers the long-term consequences of that war.

Khwaja Asif said, “This loss can never be compensated.” Terming these decisions as irreversible mistakes, he said that due to these reasons Pakistan remained a pawn in others’ wars.