Khawaja Asif the Defence Minister of Pakistan has made one of his most unseemly criticisms to date of the long history of association of Islamabad with Washington accusing the United States of using Pakistan to gain strategic advantages and then dumping it.
What Did Khawaja Asif?
In a speech in Parliament, Asif noted that the move of Pakistan to re align with the US post 1999 particularly on Afghanistan was a historic error that has haunted the country to date. He termed the American support problem as an expensive gamble that caused immense political, social and economic harm. In his opinion, the involvement of Pakistan in the conflicts because of the foreign interests undermined the stability of the country and created the deep traces that can be seen today.
Khwaja Asif admits in Parliament that Pakistan rented itself out to the U.S. for war and was later discarded “like toilet paper”. Afghanistan was destroyed by policies now openly acknowledged in parliament. Millions suffered. Generations were lost. The world cannot look away now… pic.twitter.com/aEQjrm16ME
— Mariam Solaimankhil (@Mariamistan) February 10, 2026
Battle In The Name Of Jihad
Going against several decades of government histories, Asif, too, denied the premise that Pakistan had been involved in the Afghan war based on religious obligation. He claimed that people were rallied and deployed to battle in the name of jihad, but the wording was misapplied and detrimental. Even the education system in Pakistan was redesigned to support these wars which the defence minister claimed justified them and incorporated changes in ideology that still remains to date. He argued that the anti Soviet conflict of the 1980s was governed by US geopolitical considerations and not any actual religious need and that the circumstances never justified a declaration of jihad. He said that these decisions were planted with the seeds of long-term instability and radicalisation.
‘Used As A Toilet Paper’
In reference to the post 9/11 era, Asif explained that once again Pakistan joined hands with the US in the war on terror led by the US and became an opponent of the Taliban. He held previous military dictators, Zia-ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf, responsible for dragging the country into foreign conflicts that it was Pakistan that had to bear its brunt. He used rather crude language to inform lawmakers that Pakistan had been used as a toilet paper, which was laid and disposed of. As the US would withdraw, Pakistan got stuck in violence, extremism and economic tension. We can never make up for the losses we have had, and Asif called such decisions irreversible blunders that had been bringing Pakistan to be a chessboard in the squabbles of others.
