Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has issued one of the bluntest acknowledgements yet of Islamabad’s past partnership with the United States, accusing Washington of using Pakistan to advance its strategic goals and abandoning it once those aims were achieved. Addressing Pakistan’s National Assembly, Asif conceded that the country has long attempted to erase or deny its history of involvement with terrorism, describing it as a “mistake made by military dictators in the past.”
He also described Pakistan’s role in two Afghan wars as a grave error, saying the terrorism the country faces today is a direct consequence of those decisions. Reflecting on Pakistan’s post-1999 realignment with the US—particularly after the September 11, 2001 attacks—Asif said the cost of siding with Washington was enormous and deeply damaging. Pakistan, he said, was “used and then discarded,” treated “worse than a piece of toilet paper” once its utility ended.
Asif noted that Pakistan once again aligned itself with the US during the American-led war in Afghanistan after 2001, turning against the Taliban in the process. While the United States ultimately exited the region, he said, Pakistan was left to deal with years of violence, radicalisation and severe economic pressure.
On Afghanistan, the Defence Minister rejected official claims that Pakistan’s involvement was driven by religious duty. He admitted that Pakistanis were sent to fight under the banner of jihad, calling that narrative deceptive and profoundly harmful. He told Parliament that former military rulers Zia-ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf joined the Afghan wars not in the name of Islam, but to appease a global superpower.
“We deny our past and refuse to accept our mistakes. Terrorism is the blowback of decisions taken by dictators,” Asif said, adding that the losses Pakistan endured could never be recovered and that the damage was “irreversible.” He also claimed that Pakistan’s education system was reshaped to legitimise these wars, embedding ideological changes that continue to influence society today.