Defence Minister of Pakistan Khawaja Asif has made a strong statement, accusing the US of using Islamabad for its strategic goals and then discarding it as “worse than toilet paper.” In Parliament, Asif said that Pakistan’s decision to align with Washington once more after 1999, especially regarding Afghanistan, caused lasting harm to the country.
He described the quest for US support as a major error, the effects of which Pakistan still feels decades later.
US use Pakistan worse than Toilet Paper
Challenging years of official claims, Asif dismissed the idea that Pakistan’s role in the Afghanistan conflict based on religious duty. He admitted that Pakistanis mobilized and sent to fight under the banner of jihad, calling this framing both misleading and harmful.
Asif noted that even Pakistan’s education system altered to justify these wars, adding that many ideological changes from that time still exist today. He argued that the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan during the 1980s was based on American political interests rather than any real religious need, insisting that the conditions did not warrant a declaration of jihad.
Accused US for dragging PAK into wars
Asif said that the costs of realigning with the US post-1999, especially after the September 11, 2001 attacks, were devastating. He accused former military leaders Zia-ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf of dragging Pakistan into external wars, forcing the country to deal with the consequences long after its allies moved on. Speaking candidly, Asif told that Pakistan treated “worse than toilet paper,” used for a purpose and then discarded.
Referring to the period after 2001, he said Pakistan turned against the Taliban to support the US-led war on terror, only for Washington to eventually withdraw while Pakistan remained trapped in violence, radicalization, and economic difficulty.
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