Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif accused the US of using Islamabad for its strategic interests and then discarding it “like toilet paper”.
Speaking in parliament, Asif is heard on video saying that Pakistan’s decision to re-align with Washington after 1999, particularly in relation to Afghanistan, has caused lasting damage to the country.
Asif accused Pakistan’s late military dictators Zia-ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf of embroiling the country in foreign wars and leaving it to absorb the consequences long after its allies had moved on.
“I listened to Hillary Clinton’s speech. She explained everything about how they exploited Pakistan. It’s a landmark speech. And she says how they used them like tissue paper, actually like toilet paper. Yet we didn’t learn anything…” Asif said, describing the effort to support the US as a serious miscalculation, the consequences of which Pakistan continues to suffer decades later.
The Pakistani minister also called Participation of Islamabad in the two Afghan wars “mistake” when he said that today’s terrorism in Pakistan was a blow from past mistakes.
Asif was basically talking about what the cost of realignment with the US after 1999, especially after 1999 September 11, 2001attacks, were devastating
Asif noted that Islamabad had re-aligned with Washington in the post-2001 US-led war in Afghanistan, turning against the Taliban in the process. The minister said that while the United States had finally withdrawn from the region, Pakistan was grappling with long-term violence, radicalization and economic strain.
We deny our history and do not accept our mistakes. Terrorism is a reflection of mistakes made by dictators in the past.
Asif also disagreed with the common view that Pakistan’s involvement in the Afghan conflicts was driven by religious or Islamic reasons. He conceded that Pakistanis were being sent to fight under the banner of jihad and called this framing misleading and deeply damaging.
“We deny our history and do not accept our mistakes. Terrorism is a blow to the consequences of mistakes made by dictators in the past,” the minister said.
The US-led war in Afghanistan
Pakistan has played a central – and often controversial – role in every major US military intervention in Afghanistan over the past four decades. Its involvement ranges from the anti-Soviet jihad in the 1980s to the post-9/11 war on terror and the US withdrawal in 2021.
After the 9/11 attacks, Pakistan became a key – and deeply contested – player in the US-led war in Afghanistan. His role combined front-line cooperation with Washington and persistent accusations of support for Afghan insurgent networks.